TCL: The Cubs' Legacies
by SlytherinsScribe
Summary: Sequel to Cub, do not read if you have not read Cub. This story takes off right where Cub's epilogue ended, and focuses on the children. A new evil is surfacing, and their goal? They want to be more evil than Voldemort ever was. COMPLETED 5/5/2009
1. Chapter 1

The Cubs' Legacies

A/N: Thanks to JWOHPfan I was finally able to think up a title for this. If you have not read Cub, this will make no sense, or very little. If you decide to read this first, you are an idiot because I will not be introducing characters like Sable and Vaughn, they will just be there and confuse the hell out of you. This story is centered around the kids of the Pack, I will recap who is who's child just to make sure it's understood because I'm not sure how clear it was in Cub's epilogue.

Disclaimer: …Why do I have to say I don't own Harry Potter and everything else you recognize? I never claimed I didn't. This covers the entire fic.

**WARNING: For those of you who need it in bold, you MUST READ CUB FIRST! You have been warned. It is officially no longer my fault.**

Anyway, onto the actual story….

"I found an empty compartment!" Kris said sliding the door open easily and taking a window seat. Smoky sat across from him, Eyra and Lyra next to him and Angel sat cross-legged on the seat next to Smoky. Kris cocked his head to the side, "Where's Jet? I thought he would sit with us."

"I asked him if he was this morning, he started laughing so hard mom had to ask if he was on crack. Which would actually be quite funny seeing that dad's the head of the police." Smoky answered, once again mentioning that his father had inexplicably gotten over his fear of authority and had joined the police. Smoky frowned a little, "He said he wouldn't be caught dead with first years. I'm his brother for Pete's sake!"

"Jet sure can be a jerk. How is Pete by the way?" Kris asked.

"Not bad, he ate a mouse yesterday and threw up in the middle living room. Mum was pissed." Smoky answered casually as Eyra paled. Smoky caught her eye, "Pete's our pet cat. You thought I was talking about a person, weren't you?"

"Yeah, and it was kind of creeping me out." Eyra said averting her eyes.

"You're name's weird." Smoky said thoughtfully.

Eyra glared, "I could say the same about yours."

"I'll tell you why I have my name if you tell me about yours." Smoky offered.

"An eyra is a large reddish brown cat that lives in South America."

"Smoky is how my parents found out I was a wizard." Smoky said smiling, "I didn't want to take a nap, so I burned my crib. I've always had a really easy time getting stuff to burn into flame."

"So you're an arsonist?"

"Pretty much."

"I was named after a constellation." Lyra said.

"I was named Angel because that's what I am." Angel said smiling sweetly. Smoky rolled his eyes.

"I predict that _someone_ here is going to be happy little Hufflepuff." He muttered, Kris heard it, but the girls either didn't hear that, or pretended not to.

"So Kris, why is your name spelled weird?" Lyra asked.

"It's not spelled weird K-r-i-s is how you spell kris when referring to the Malaysian dagger with a jagged blade that I am named after." Everyone stared at Kris questioningly, "I'm telling the truth, my mum's obsessed with daggers. Actually, she prefers throwing knives. It's rather scary."

The compartment door slid open, and a boy who looked to be a first year as well looked in. He had black hair that obscured his eyes from view, and almost covered the dark circles beneath them. He was within an inch of Smoky's height, and Smoky was the tallest of them. The boy's frown deepened, "I'm sorry for bothering you, I will leave."

Before they could say anything the boy was gone. They all looked at each other thinking something along the same lines but not sure how to put it. The boy had given off a strange vibe that was almost alien. Eyra thought for a moment before saying, "He's a half blood something, isn't he?"

They all agreed.

**Alius positus**

"You've never had a problem with going to muggle schools before." Vaughn said after half an hour of silence from her brooding daughter.

Ivory said nothing.

"Come on, you have friends at school. It's not like you'll be alone."

"They moved up to the secondary school." Ivory said darkly.

"All of them?"

"There's only three."

"Which three?"

"Dani, Bax and Toni."

"You mean Danielle, Baxter and Anthony."

"Yeah, sure. Whatever." Ivory said disinterested and turned to watch the scenery of downtown London as Vaughn drove.

Vaughn sighed, Ivory was prematurely a teenage girl. She was already rebelling against her and Wolf and wanted to spend every waking moment with her friends. Oh, and she was moody as hell. Wolf had such an easy time dealing with her when she got like this, he would just start talking about the strangest things and soon she would be chatting with him. Vaughn wasn't good at dealing with girls, Sable and Ferret's middle child, Ebony, had proved that. Vaughn decided to bring something randomly in hope that Vaughn would latch on to it, "You're father is going to send us a letter of who's in which house. What house do you think your brother will be in?"

Ivory didn't even look up, she just made a peace sign with her palm facing herself. Vaughn frowned deeply and ignored the fact she was using the most vulgar gesture in England. Apparently Sable, wonderful police chief that he is, decided to teach her kids that particular gesture last Summer. She was seriously doubting that he was even trying to set a good example for the cubs.

**Tempus Praeter**

"Hagrid, why are two of the first years wet?" Severus Snape slurred at the half giant, carelessly conjuring towels for the two.

"Sir, I fell in." Lyra malfoy spoke up as she wrapped the towel around her nervously.

"And how does that explain why… What's your surname?" Severus asked, realizing he didn't know the boy's name.

"Uh… Potter." Kris replied automatically.

"How does your falling in the lake explain why Potter is wet?" Snape snapped at the proud Malfoy.

"I can't swim, and Kris felt it necessary to almost drown both of us while trying to save me." Lyra said hotly to hide her embarrassment.

"It wouldn't have been so hard if you weren't so heavy." Kris growled.

"Enough, both of you." Severus ordered, wondering why he still worked with these small children. Oh, right, deep, deep down, he actually enjoyed it. He repressed a sigh, "We will go into the great hall in a minute, and it will be there in front of the entire staff and student body that you will be sorted. The headmistress will call your name, and at that time you will sit on the stool at the front of the hall to be sorted. Once sorted you will take a seat at your respective table, this will be easy because the older students cheer when someone is put in their house, although some Hufflepuffs cheer no matter what, so try not to get confused. Come along."

The first years shuffled after the old potions master as he led them to the great hall and then to the front of the large room. He then told the students to remain there and went to his place at the staff table, one to the left of the center and next to Flitwick. On the other side of the center was Harry Potter, Ginny Malfoy and Neville Longbottom. Harry as the muggle studies teacher that had muggleborns attending his classes that were apparently amazing. Ginny as the defense teacher, and Neville as the Herbology teacher after years of helping Professor Sprout.

Headmistress McGonagall, having given up being a teacher two years prior to Nate Rivers, who managed to be extremely good at transfiguration despite his adventurous nature. The sorting hat recited a song that no one payed attention to, and the whole ceremony moved on. McGonagal took out her long list of names and called the first one, "Axel, Diana."

A small mousy girl made her way up to the stool to have the sorting hat and was immediately declared a Hufflepuff. Every other first year made note of which table that was so that the random cheering Hufflepuffs wouldn't throw them off. It seemed to take forever for McGonagall to finally reach, "Hawthorn, Smoky."

Smoky ran his fingers through his hair as he walked up, having to really fight the urge to play with a flame between his fingers like he usually did when nervous. That particular habit caused Sable and Ferret to constantly have to go to his muggle school to talk to his teachers. Smoky sat on the stool and McGonagall set the hat on his head, which easily declared him a Slytherin. Smoky stood with a smirk and joined his fellow Slytherins. Next in the group was Angel, who simply radiated Hufflepuff to the point that the sorting hat didn't even need to touch her head to declare her so.

"Malfoy, Lyra." Lyra walked up gingerly with her nose in the air, and grimaced before sitting on the grubby stool. It was almost a full second before she was declared a Ravenclaw, and she walked confidently to her peers.

McGonagall looked confused as she read the next name, it was the one of the twins from Italy that had strange names, "Neri, Ki-rene?"

A dark haired girl similar to the boy they saw on the train walked up to the professor, complete with dark circles below her eyes and obscuring black hair. She stopped to correct the headmistress in the pronunciation of her name, "It's Cyrene, pretend the first two letters are Si not Cy." Came her flawless English accent. She then sat on the stool and waited to be sorted. After McGonagall placed the hat on her head she was quickly declared a Slytherin.

Almost the exact thing happened with her twin brother, who they'd seen on the train. He had to explain that the e at the end of Vincinte was pronounced before he was sorted into Slytherin. Kris couldn't help but find their perfect accents too perfect. It just wasn't normal. As was the fact that they were extremely pale and almost never talked. However, Kris was pulled from his train of thought when he heard, "Potter, Kris."

Kris walked up to the hat confidently and sat down while the hat was set on his head. And that's when he heard the hat, the strange voice that mum had claimed wanted her in Slytherin. It was thinking out loud, "You have a lot of potential, you would be the perfect Slytherin, but…"

"But what?" Kris thought, if he would be the perfect Slytherin, he should be in Slytherin.

"You and that pyromaniac I just sorted would burn down the entire school if you were in the same house. Slytherin will have enough trouble in the years to come, better be GRYFFINDOR!"

The hat was removed from his head and he numbly walked to the Gryffindor. What did the hat, which had been known to be more aware of the outside world better than most people despite the fact that he was locked in an office most of the year, mean when it said Slytherin had enough trouble? Then it hit him, the twins. They were half human, half… something. He'd figure it out eventually. He barely even registered Eyra being sorted into Ravenclaw. Great, they were spread out among the four houses, that would make this whole school thing annoying. Perhaps they could bend the rules a bit.

The sorting was finally finished with a Gryffindor named Hazel Yates being sorted into Gryffindor, and chose to sit next to him. Okay, almost on his lap. He looked at her questioningly, "Can I help you?"

"You're cute."

"You're creepy."

"Will you be my boyfriend?"

"No."

"Friend?"

"Not interested."

"You can't say no, mommy said that no one would. I could be with anyone I chose."

"And why would she say something like that?" Kris asked as he attempted to move away from her.

"I'm half veela." She side, showing her silver blue eyes through her silver blonde hair.

"Yeah, well, I'm still not interested, so will you please get off my lap. And let go of my hand."

The girl sheepishly moved away as food appeared on the table. Kris ate and mindlessly joked with his fellow Gryffindors. There was smiling Jai Waite, blonde Kian Judd, mischievous Steven Pierce and tomboy Naomi Seton. And half way down the table was Jet. He smiled in spite of himself, perhaps he could survive in Gryffindor. At least he didn't have to share a dorm with one of the twins.

**Alius Positus**

"Did you see Smoky have fire between his fingers when he was being sorted?" Neville asked over dinner at the staff table.

"Yeah, Smoky has a magical version of Pyrokinesis. He's been able to control fire since he was one or two, which is extremely dangerous at that age. Your daughter's sorting was interesting though, the hat was still two feet from her head." Harry said smiling.

"What can I say, she has an aura of happiness around her." Neville shrugged.

"I still think your son's little friend was hilarious, he looked like he was about to hit her if she didn't back off." Ginny commented.

"If I didn't first," Wolf said in a low voice, "First of all it's inappropriate, and secondly, there eleven for crimeny's sake. They should be thinking about school, not… going out."

"Yates is part Veela, she probably has a schoolyard crush on him and expects to be able to charm him." Nate added.

"Too bad she doesn't know that the charm doesn't affect anyone until they come into inheritance at age thirteen." Harry said, "And even then, it doesn't always work on the people you knew before then. Which means there is a chance my son won't marry a Veela."

"What do you have against Veela?" Ginny asked.

Harry shrugged, "Nothing I guess, it just seems kind of shallow the way they attract men. I guess I'm a bit traditional when it comes to love."

**Tempus Praeter**

Vaughn sighed, Ivory had been silently brooding in her room ever since they got home. That was ten hours. Vaughn had invaded her space about ten minutes back to put a plate of food in her room and Ivory had been reading the Earth's children series for the umpteenth time. Needless to say, she had not so much as attempted to talk. So Vaughn let her brood before her first day of school.

Suddenly a familiar owl flew through the window and landed on the bird perch to wait for the letter to be taken off it's leg, and Vaughn was quick to take it from the owl.

_Dear Vaughn, _

_I hope Ivory's not still brooding about not being able to go to Hogwarts. Though, knowing her and her tendencies to act about fifteen, she probably is._

_Well, I think the sorting went well, no one died, well, that Yates girl was close. She was hitting on Kris and I think he was about to hit her. Smoky was sorted into Slytherin, him and his little flame. It's really a bad habit to get into. Lyra and Eyra are both in Ravenclaw, of course, who would have expected otherwise. Kris was sorted into Gryffindor, but he took longer than the others and seemed to be deep in thought for the rest of dinner. Hat probably said something deeply philosophical that he's trying to figure out. Or he's planning to do something that I'll have to yell at him for later, most likely involving Smoky. Do I even need to say that Angel is in Hufflepuff? The only way she could be anymore Huffleuff is if she got brain damaged by cheering charms and started skipping around the school yelling that she loves the world._

_Not that I would put that pass her, mind you._

_Oh, and Jet's in my class again. He grew up in the muggle world, what else can I possibly teach him? That, and he promised me last year that he would not be taking my class again. He caught me after dinner to tell me that he just couldn't miss a chance to annoy me. How sweet. He's also ignoring the fact that the first years exist, which is annoying them to no end. I don't think he'll last the week, they'll ambush him on his way to charms or something._

_Also, there's these twins from Italy that look like they just crawled out of a goth modeling agency. They're the Neri twins, Cyrene and Vincinte, black hair, dark circles beneath their eyes, frighteningly pale. I don't know what look they're trying to pull off, but they're doing it well. They also corrected McGonagall in front of the whole school on the pronunciation of their names. Remember how whenever she's really annoyed with people she locks her jaw? She locked her jaw so hard I thought she was going to break her teeth._

_Anyway, I want to know how ivory's doing, especially after her first day of school. Hopefully she doesn't get sent to the office on the first day. As long as shed oesn't break Kris' record of 69 and a half minutes on the first day before getting sent to the office. What was he thinking? You don't call your teacher a crazy lady with hair that broke the laws of gravity and deserved to be in an insane asylum until at least a week after school starts. Doing so on the first day is just bad form._

_I suppose I have terrible form if we're going by that, because I did that with Lockhart and Umbridge. They deserved it!_

_Send my love to Ivory._

_Love, _

_Wolf_

Vaughn sighed and walked down the hall to her daughter's door and knocked on it loudly, "Your father sends his regards!"

Vaughn cursed herself mentally and promised to give Sable a piece of her mind as she heard her daughter quietly reply, "Sod off."

-

(A/N: Here's Chapter one of TCL, and yes, I'm actually writing a sequel with a plot. I hope you like Ivory because she's going to be fun in a scary way later. Kind of like Sable, only she's nine and looks like an innocent little girl. And the Neri twins are important. Reviews are always appreciated, if only to tell me you think I never should have made a sequel, or that you did not heed my warning and have not read Cub.)


	2. Chapter 2

Mr. Ross stood at the front of the room on his first day of teaching watching over his class of nine year olds. He was a bit nervous, but was pushing himself to start the activity to lean their names. He cleared his throat and said, "Okay, We're going to go around the room and each of you are going to tell me your name, your favorite color, and your favorite hobby. Let's start with you in front."

"My name's Mary, my favorite color is pink, and I like to draw ponies."

"My name's Eric, my favorite color is blue, and I like video games."

…

"It's your turn."

"Must I?" The girl in front asked disinterestedly.

"Yes, now go on."

"Fine," The girl sighed, "My name is Ivory, my favorite color is black, and I enjoy stealing candy from babies and kicking puppies. And that's on good days."

"Ivory, would you mind being honest with us?"

"Fine, I actually like comitting arson in my free time. Better?"

Mr. Ross sighed, "Just go to the office."

"Gladly." Vaughn said picking up her bags and leaving the room.

**Alius Positus**

Their first mistake was to put Slytherins and Gryffindors together for potions. Snape's mistake was letting them pick their partners. A further mistake was not separating Smoky and Kris. After that it took a full two minutes for their potion, the simplest potion in the world, to have burst into flames. It wasn't even supposed to be remotely flammable. Since it was their first day, Snape gave them a second chance and they made it flawlessly, proving that their antics were on purpose. Only a few other pairs had been able to make the potion perfectly, one of them being the ever silent Neri twins. They never talked, yet the girl seemed to be ordering the boy around.

Then, before lunch Kris had a rather quiet class with the Hufflepuffs in Charms. But elsewhere in the castle, there was a class that was far from quiet.

**Alius Positus**

"Quiet, quiet," Harry Potter said as he entered his room of his fifth years and the settled down, "Okay, this is your third year of this class, since we cover just about everything you need to know about muggle history and a majority of basic things, and you all voted last year on topics you wanted to cover this year. Unfortunately, they will not allow me to teach you about nuclear weaponry and bombs, you're going to have to live with the unit we did on guns last year. This fall we're going to learn about world cultures, mainly on how to insult your host. We will be focusing on rude gestures, we've discussed this before, what happens in this class room, stays in this class room. We will also do a cooking course, and our last unit this year will be on literary muggle arts, which will end with you guys putting on a famous muggle play for the other muggle studies classes. Any questions? Meridou?"

"What if we start a fire during the cooking unit? Are we going to have our wands?" The boy asked.

"You won't, I will. However, we will be doing a muggle fire extinguisher seminar at the beginning of the unit. If any fire extinguishers survive, we do have permission to blow them up in a safe environment. Aitcheson?"

"What play will it be?"

"Don't know, and I probably won't know until about February. Ask again then. I might regret this, but Hawthorn?"

"What exactly are we going to use to throw rude gestures out? Each other?" Jet asked mischievously.

"No, if I did the ministry would say I was 'morally inept', I have pictures of various idiots, some magical some muggle: Rufus Scrimgour, Cornelius Fudge, Peter Pettigrew, Voldemort, Paris Hilton, you get the idea. Today we will be picking our unexpecting victims, you will be switching every week just because it gets boring flipping people off for the umpteenth time. Descriptions are on the back of the pictures in the box in the center of the room. Go." Harry said and watched as chaos reigned over the group, and two students fighting over Paris Hilton.

**Alius Positus**

Vaughn sighed as she walked down the plain halls of her daughter's school towards the office, which was in the center of school by the teacher parking lot. This pissed Vaughn off, because it meant that she must walk half way across the school because her presence had been requested by the headmaster. Headmaster Charles was a kind old man who was probably debating whether or not he would retire or not the next year, however, Vaughn had seen him far too many times over the previous years than either of them would have liked. It was because of this that the Potter children were always called mini-satins, but Vaughn always argued that they were simply rebelling against authority. The teachers argued that this was the same thing.

The school secretary, Eloise Derry, gave her a pitying smile before saying that she could just wait outside the principal's office with her daughter. Ms. Derry didn't even have to tell her where the office was. Vaughn walked through the office maze until she found the door with two chairs outside, one occupied by Ivory who was trying to get her skirt to lay just right over her legs, but it wasn't cooperating. The pink shirt that was also part of her uniform was covered by a grey sweater, to hide her least favorite color. Ivory had also succeeded in taking out her hair from it's two braids and retying it one that fell to the left of the center of her back. How long had she been made to sit out here and wait? Vaughn rolled her eyes, "You been waiting long?"

Ivory looked up and put an innocent face on, "I already had a conversation with the headmaster, but he said he didn't want to discuss anything further without your presence."

"What exactly did you do this time?"

"I was heckling the teacher, partly because I found the exercise boring, pointless and stupid. It didn't help that I yelled at the principal that despite Mr. Ross' beliefs, I wasn't lying the second time."

"How long did it take you to be thrown out of the class room? I assume your goal was to beat your brothers record, and therefore, you timed it."

"Twenty-three minutes, fifty-eight seconds." Ivory said proudly as the door to the Principal's office opened and Charles' thin wrinkly face smiled at them.

"Well, Mrs. Potter, I would like to say that it is nice to see you again, but the circumstances aren't exactly pleasant. Please come in and have a seat." He said holding the door open for the two of them, he then closed the door and took a seat behind his desk and looked over a sheet of paper. "Mrs. Potter, your daughter felt it necessary to make a mockery of her teacher's material today. It was his first day as an actual teacher, and when I talked to him about the issue, he seemed very upset. Now, if Ivory were any other student with her educational background, flawless grades, top of her class and using her free period for private language study, I would pass her off with a mere warning. However, her history when it comes to behavior is staggering: heckling, insulting the teacher, shouting matches, berating the teacher's abilities, berating her peers intelligence, refusing to wear her uniform, purposely starting fires, insulting others endurance and strength, the list goes on. Ivory, do you have anything to say for yourself?"

"First of all, I don't see how knowing my favorite color and hobby is going to help him teach me. And for future reference, while calling my favorite hobby arson may have been going over the edge, I do enjoy burning things." Ivory began, "Secondly, Mr. Ross did not seem all that upset when he excused me. Third, you have not talked to him this morning in person because you never left your office and you didn't call him because I could hear everything you said, you called my mother, the superintendent and your wife. I refuse to wear my uniform on occasion because I simply loathe the color pink. And perhaps I would not feel the need to berate others if I was able to move on to more challenging material. Such as allowing me to skip two years as I requested. And as for private language study, I won't be continuing that much longer since I've already learned Spanish, French, Italian, German, Dutch, Mandarin, Japanese, Portuguese, Korean, and am about to learn the languages of the Middle East. What I do, I do out of boredom."

"Boredom," The headmaster said contemplatively, "That's your excuse? Is the fact that you did this out of boredom supposed alleviate you of your wrongs? It doesn't. That's why I called you here Mrs. Potter, in order to try to remedy your daughters unacceptable behavior, I would like to give her a one hour detention after school every day for the first term. In order to do so, I do need your permission. What do you say?"

Vaughn thought for a few minutes, searching for an answer. This had never been suggested to her before, and never with Kris. Then again, Kris hadn't made two different teachers refuse to teach at this school and pissed off every teacher he had ever had by being an arrogant smart-ass. Perhaps Ivory needed this, a little more control in her life, less boredom. What would Wolf do? Probably say no, but… "Her future after this will be better for her than if she doesn't."

Ivory stared at her mother open-mouthed, feeling betrayed. Meanwhile, Vaughn was realizing that she had just sealed her daughter's fate with a prophecy, which she had been able to remember after quite a few years of experience. She hoped she hadn't screwed anything up too much.

**Alius Positus**

House unity hadn't been much of a problem in the last decade or so, but the five first years were crossing lines that no one had dared to cross before. All five of them were sitting at the far end of the Hufflepuff table during lunch, people gave them strange looks, but everyone was looking at the teachers who were discussing whether or not this should be allowed. After a couple minutes of indecision, a decision was made by the four house heads and the headmistress. Students were allowed to mix tables during lunch, but were to keep to their houses own table during dinner. Apparently it was a compromise between Flitwick and Snape that thought houses should eat with their peers, and Ginny and Neville(who had been allowed to take over as head of Hufflepuff despite the fact that he was in Gryffindor) who saw no reason to oppose the act.

The five first years that caused the argument in the first place had no problem agreeing to this. They really just had some questions and comments that they weren't entirely comfortable sharing with the strangers in their houses yet, that could change in a few weeks though. It was obvious from the first moment that the two Ravenclaws were pissed, so Kris immediately questioned this.

"Everyone is under the distinct impression that we're twins." Lyra said haughtily.

The other three looked at them before making any comment, then Angel said, "Well, you're both in Ravenclaw, you both have red hair and have fairly similar features. And the two of you being best friends gives you a definite twinsy feel."

"But we're cousins, not twins!" Lyra insisted.

"We don't even have the same eye color." Eyra added.

"And twins don't have to be in the same house, Mum said the Patil twins she went to school with were in Gryffindor and Ravenclaw. Same house doesn't mean anything." Lyra continued.

"You're names are also very similar, like parents usually do with twins." Kris pointed out.

"What about uncles Fred and George?" Eyra countered.

"When did I say that the Weasleys did things like everyone else?" Kris grinned.

"Speaking of twins, the Neri twins are scary beyond belief." Smoky said exasperated.

"How so?" Angel said cocking her head to the side.

"First of all, I think they can read each others minds. They never talk to each other, and they seem to think that if you call on one of them, you call on both of them. They answer teacher's questions in sync. I swear, Flitwick was about to have a heart attack." Smoky said shaking his head, "They aren't very fond of me either, but they keep giving me the OK sign. It's beyond weird."

They all went on about their classes and which ones they had next, Kris and Angel had Herbology next, while the other three had care of Magical Creatures. Then Kris, Eyra and Lyra had Defense, while the others had transfiguration.

**Alius Positus**

"Hey Bri, I thought you were supposed to get out of school an hour ago." Bax said, ruffling Ivory's hair, which had been completely taken out of her braid. Bri was the group's nickname for her, which had originally been Vry(pronounced like fry), then it had been Vri, and it had eventually evolved into Bri over the span of three years.

"I was, but my mum lost her mind and agreed to me having detention after school every day for an entire term starting today. It's the first day of school." Ivory said to her eleven year old friend.

"What? Is that even legal?" Dani asked.

"It is if a parent consents to it." Ivory growled.

"Poor Bri," Toni said giving her a hug, "We were going to go to the river and toss stones, you think your mum will be mad if you don't go straight home?"

"She didn't tell me I had to go straight home, and truthfully, I don't think I'm in the mood to be around mum right now. Let's go." Ivory said, and the four of them began walking towards the river, keeping an eye out for pebbles on the street.

**Tempus Praeter**

"I'm home," Ivory called as she closed the door, and Vaughn could hear her head for her room, and cut her off in the hall.

"Where the hell have you been? School you got out of school five hours ago." Vaughn asked angrily.

"I was spending time with my friends, we were done by the river, then we went to Dani's house to do our homework." Ivory responded defensively, "What, not only am I to lose an hour of my day to meaningless detention, but I'm not allowed to see my friends?"

"You can see your friends, but I have to know when, where, and how long before hand. London isn't safe, especially not by the river, and I don't want you going there unsupervised."

"I was with Toni."

"He isn't supervision, he's fifteen."

"He isn't supervision, but Sable was. How does that work?"

"It was different for us."

"Why, because instead of having families that hated you didn't have families at all?" Ivory glared making Vaughn freeze for a second.

"What makes you think that we hate you Ivory, we really don't." Vaughn asked quietly.

Ivory went emotionless, something that she did instinctively when she felt hurt, "I never see dad. You make a bid deal over Kris' good grades and never even bat an eye at mine, you even look disappointed if mine aren't perfect. Everyone makes such a big deal over Kris going to Hogwarts and I can count how many times I was talked to over the Summer by dad on one hand, and it was my birthday. I act out in school for one reason, to try to get someone to notice me, and what do I get? An hour a day spent cleaning the preschool rooms, alone. I have four friends, one that I never even see unless it's a special occasion, and the other three I can't even tell that I'm a witch. And no one even noticed that I can do magic, controlled magic. If those aren't good enough reasons to think I'm hated, then I'd like to know how anyone could be hated."

Vaughn froze, had Ivory really been treated this bad? She thought back over the summer and had maybe one or two memories that included her daughter, but many that included Kris and Smoky, Jet, Sable, Ferret, Ebony, Lynn and even Lynn's shy boyfriend Terry. True enough, Ivory only saw her father over Christmas break and summer break, but the girl had never made a complaint. She'd never made a complaint about anything she had listed. How long had she been holding that in?

Ivory shook her head softly with a smile that looked genuine, but felt wrong in context, "It doesn't matter, I'm probably just exaggerating things again. I'm just being selfish. If you don't mind, I'm tired and going to go to bed."

Ivory walked past her gracefully as if nothing had happened and touched the door to her room when Vaughn called, "Vaughn?"

"Yes mother?" Ivory responded warmly with that bright smile she was well-known for.

Vaughn hesitated to do anything, she had never been good at trying to have a serious conversation with her daughter. Finally she just sighed and gave up, saying the first thing that popped into her head, "Are you going to bed without even having dinner?"

Ivory grinned and nearly laughed, "Don't worry, I already ate. Good night."

"Good night Ivory." Vaughn said weakly. There was something off about her daughter. No one could explode like that and then pretend nothing happened, especially someone like Ivory who planned out her every action before doing anything. That girl was planning something, and she had just performed some large part of it. Perhaps by pretending it was a small confession instead of a passionate rant, she was trying to make Vaughn believe that she had imagined the whole thing. This actually had very little to do with Ivory's actual plan.

-

(A/N: Well… chapter two is fairly heavy. If you have a prediction for what exactly Ivory's plan is, I would love to know what it is. Ivory is somewhat modeled after myself, only a lot smarted and a lot braver, but she is a bit less mentally stable. Next chapter will be almost entirely at Hogwarts, we will witness one of Ginny's first year classes(maybe both if interest is shown via reviews) and the Neri twins, their background and a new hobby of theirs that makes Smoky extremely annoyed. Please Review!)


	3. Chapter 3

First years didn't have Defense classes until the second day of school, but no one had ever been disappointed with Ginny's approach to teaching the subject. The first couple years had been… difficult, due to her own tumultuous experience with defense teachers, but she had finally succeeded in standardizing each year of the class. One thing that had never caught on however, was calling her by her surname, Malfoy. Instead, she was always addressed as Ginny by her students. Few who had been told the specifics of her school years insisted on calling her Queen, but she said that she would rather not be called by that name in a calm voice.

As the Gyrffindor and Hufflepuff first years took their seats, Kris and Angel naturally sitting next to each other, Ginny swept into the classroom, sitting on her desk. She, like Harry, never wore robes while teaching and chose to wear a loose pair of jeans and a t-shirt, no school robes, no hat. Her hair was tied back in a braid that fell to her waist. The class fell silent several moments before the bell, and Ginny just waited for the bell to ring, which it eventually did.

"Hello, my name is Ginny Malfoy, feel free to call me Ginny, almost everyone does." She began, "My defense classes at Hogwarts weren't what you would call enjoyable, so my goal is to make sure you can leave your last class with me able to protect yourself in just about any situation you could catch yourself in. I sorted through everything you'll need to know, and decided what the focus of each year will be. First years will be learning about dark creatures, how to recognize them, and how to protect yourself from them. This will include vampires and werewolves, even though the ministry has given them rights. Which means I expect you to be courteous and unprejudiced against them. Does anyone have any questions before we get started? You over there, name and house before your question."

"Naomi Seton of Hufflepuff, is it true that you physically assaulted Voldemort?" A small girl asked, and several others in the class agreed that the question should be answered. Angel and Kris just rolled their eyes since they had known the answer for years.

Ginny sighed before answering, "Yes, I did, but I can't say that I regret doing so. He deserved it. However, this class will be focusing on protecting yourself in the future, not dwelling on the past. Does anyone have a question about the class? Yes?"

"Hazel Yates, Gryffindor, will we be performing spells in this class?" The girl said who had tried to get Kris to be her boyfriend.

"No, we will not be using magic in class and you will all be expected to perform them flawlessly for the first time at the end of term exams." Ginny said sarcastically, rolling her eyes, "We will always be learning the spells in class, and practicing them during class. How I teach is based loosely off of the SET. Does anyone know what the SET was?" Ginny asked, disappointed to only see Kris' hand, "Fine, go for it Kris."

"The SET was a group of students led by my dad, Harry Potter, that met in secret to learn Defense Against the Dark Arts because their current Defense teacher was employed by the ministry to deny that a war was going on. The SET focused entirely on learning how to perform spells and curses that could be used to protect the user." Kris recited.

"Very good. After Harry was in charge of the SET, I took over as the leader. My work in the SET is what got the headmistress to ask for me as a defense teacher. We will be learning several basic defense spells this year, and next class we will begin with boggarts. Anyone know what boggarts are? In the back corner?"

"Lindsey Graves, Hufflepuff, aren't they shape shifting creatures that turn into people's worst fear?" The girl replied.

"Yes, very good. You will all be facing a boggart that one of my peers has found. This teaches you two things, one is how to fight off boggarts, the other is to help you conquer your fears. However, I do not wish to cause any general mayhem in my classes. If you have a fear of anything deeply disturbing, morbid, or could possibly make people faint, puke or scream like a five year old girl, please talk to me. I may give you a pardon from the activity to ensure the sanity of the class. It looks like we have about ten minutes left in class, I should be going over behavior, but instead I'm going to give you a quick overview and let you talk among yourselves for the rest of the period. The first rule, is follow my directions, second, if you do anything wrong, tell me immediately. It's only going to get worse if I have to find out from another person, you'll be in more trouble. Third and last rule, don't make me want to kill you, throw stuff at you, or kick you out of my class. Have a nice rest of the day."

**Tempus praeter**

Neville watched his first year Slytherin and Ravenclaw class leave with a frown. Most of the class was well behaved, but Smoky's pyrokenisis was not helping him much in herbology. The Neri twins weren't much help, especially Cyrene, who seemed to be the cause of most of the fire. She was working at the table next to Smoky with her brother, and she would whisper something just loud enough for smoky to hear it and then a small flame would appear somewhere nearby. After a while, Smoky's aim began improving after he calmed down enough to concentrate. Which is why he had to ask Smoky to stay after class. He didn't look sorry about it either.

"Smoky, what exactly made you burn random plants in the classroom?" Neville said as he softly touched the singed edge of a leaf.

"My aim was off, Sir. I assure you, it won't happen again." Smoky replied smirking.

"What exactly were you aiming for?"

"The reincarnation of the devil that's called Cyrene Neri, Sir."

"You've known her one day, she can't be that bad."

"You don't share dorm with her or her brother, Sir."

Neville looked at him suspiciously, "Was actually catching her hair on fire necessary?"

"I put it out." Smoky answered defensively.

"Either way, I suggest you stop the animosity. Professor Snape likes his snakes to get along, and I wouldn't want to be the one to tell him otherwise."

Smoky frowned, "Of course, Professor." Then Smoky picked up his bag and took his leave.

**Tempus Praeter**

The day had gone on for far too long for poor Smoky, who wasn't allowed to retaliate against the Neri twins. How dare they call him a mudblood? Whatever they were, there was no way in hell they were pureblood wizards. Smoky had done his homework in the library just to avoid the two of them, and now he was going to relax on his bed until dinner, just about an hour. As he entered his dorm he found the one flaw in his plan. He frowned, "What the hell do you two think you're doing?"

"Tsk, tsk, such language mister Hawthorn." Cyrene said smirking.

"We expected someone as intelligent as yourself to be able to deduce that we are doing our homework." Vincinte added, which was the first time he had spoken without his sister's overtones.

"On my bed?" Smoky said brushing his hand through his hair, "And girls aren't even supposed to be in the boys dorms."

"There isn't a rule against it, mudblood, I checked." Cyrene's smirk grew.

"Stop calling me that, it's not like your purebloods, I don't even think you're completely human." Smoky spat in retaliation.

The Neri twins smiled for the first time, and actually looked proud of what he had said. Vincinte almost laughed, "Finally someone who's figured us out, but do you know what we are."

Vincinte's open mouth smile made Smoky look at his teeth for the first time, and with a quick check, he saw that Cyrene's were the same, "What the… you're vampires?"

"Half vampire, half wizard to be exact. Italy is home to the best wizard-vampire relationships in Europe, and if we knew more about asian vampires we could probably say the world. Mum and Dad instantly fell in love, and me and my brother became the first halfers." Cyrene told him.

"Does McGonagall know?" Smoky asked, and the two of them shook their heads.

"And if I were you, I wouldn't tell anyone." Vincinte said darkly, smiling in a sadistic manner, "We can't afford to get kicked out of the school, if we think you might tell, we will silence you. This goes for your little friends too. You are going to be the only one to know."

Smoky's eyes widened, "I won't tell, I promise… can you just answer a few questions?

"Depends on what the questions are, mudblood." Cyrene said, and watched the boy flinch helplessly.

"Are you two able to turn people?" Smoky asked.

"No, we don't technically need to drink blood either. It does make us stronger though." Cyrene replied easily.

"Does sun burn your skin?"

"It doesn't even burn full vampire's skin, it's just easier to chase prey in the dark. We also have very sensitive eyes and our skin gets sunburns very easily, and a vampire with a sunburn just looks ridiculous. So we typically stay indoors during the day." Vincinte answered in his precise monotone voice that suggested that he may have a very handsome voice if he chose to use it. Just like the two could have been the most beautiful people in the school if they didn't purposely make themselves look shabby. Smoky knew for a fact the dark circles beneath their eyes were drawn on.

"Do you have to sleep, or is that just some act that you put on to seem human?" Smoky was a little embarrassed that he was asking so many questions of the frightening halfers.

"Well, we are part human. We don't need a lot of sleep though, about five hours a week will keep us alert." Cyrene shrugged.

"Why are you two here instead of going to AcMag in Italy?" AcMag was the modern was of referring to Academia di Magicus near Florens, Italy. It was well known for being completely open to werewolves and even had a few vampires in denial, ones that had been turned and abandoned by their sires. It was also known for having ten times the people as Hogwarts and almost the same level of education.

"We wanted to go to a school that was more modern and had a bloodier history. No one has ever died attending AcMag. No one known for being incredibly evil has ever come from AcMag either. This is the bloodiest school that is still around, at least since Durmstang ended up being abandoned seven years ago because of the Brotherhood of Blood. Oh, did you not hear about the group of thirteen boys that killed the entire staff and forty-seven students because they were no longer allowed to study the dark arts? They were given the dementors kiss. All of them. Afterwards, those whose families consented it, were handed over to the vampires to suck their bodies dry." Cyrene explained with a happy glint in her eyes.

"I believe you are bothering our fellow Slytherin, perhaps you should calm down, sister." Vincinte warned quietly.

"Perhaps you are right. Would you mind leaving us to do our homework? Wouldn't it be a shame if you were the cause of us getting unsavory grades?" Cyrene agreed, her frightening eyes leaving no room for argument.

"Just leave my bed by curfew." Smoky said, there was no strength behind his words. Being a pyro gave you certain privileges, but what was fire against the undead. Or the half dead. Or whatever the hell the Neris were.

**Tempus Praeter**

Kris frowned again. What had made him tell his dad that he knew the school like the back of his hand already and could easily find his office after dinner? After about twenty minutes he was realizing that he had said something incredibly stupid. After searching the fourth floor, which is where a sixth year Slytherin said the class room. Stupid Slytherins. This one probably had just as much of a proclivity to lie as Smoky did.

"You look lost, can I help you?"

Kris turned around to see Ginny smiling. His pride quickly replied, "I don't need help, I know exactly where I'm going."

Ginny knowingly cocked an eyebrow, "Then you know what floor you're on?"

"Yeah, the fourth, right?" Kris said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

Ginny shook her head, "Second, the west stairs have been acting strange lately. For some reason they skip over a couple floors. You're headed to your dad's office, right?"

"Yeah."

"Take the stairs at that end of the hall, his office is the third door on the right side of the hall as you go up."

"Thanks," Kris said and headed towards the staircase Ginny had pointed off. He frowned that he had to keep track of which way was North now to avoid skipping floors again. They should really label which floor you're on. He finally found his dad's door, famous for having muggle bumper stickers on it (four, they said 'Caution: water on roads during rain', 'humans are like slinkies, basically useless, yet amusing to watch fall down stairs', 'Join the dark side now! And receive a free toaster oven' and, of course, 'I don't have a short attention span, I just… Hey look! A kitty!'). Kris knocked on the door and his dad quickly opened it.

"There you are, I was just about to go look for you. You get lost?" Wolf asked his son.

"Yeah, I somehow ended up on the second floor." Kris admitted as his dad closed the door behind him.

"West staircase?" Wolf asked, and Kris nodded, "Seventh years put a curse on it that will last through midnight tonight, just long enough to get people to stay away, the will use at their leisure. Tell all of your fellow first years to avoid it, the staff's putting a few hexes of it's own up. I helped out, and you don't want to get caught up in that. Now to get to what I asked you here for, I received a letter this morning-"

"Smoky made me do it, I swear, it's all his fault." Kris interrupted, and Wolf just stared at him.

"I don't think we're talking about the same letter." Wolf said slowly, very suspicious.

"It wasn't from Sable?" Kris asked.

"No,"

"You should expect one soon. And no, I'm not going to tell you what we, I mean, what Smoky made me do." Kris said guiltily.

"Okay, I'll keep that in mind. The letter was from your mum, and she is really concerned about your sister. I want to know if you can give us any insight on the issue." Wolf sighed, "Some weird things happened on her first day of classes, she got kicked out after about twenty-four minutes."

"Damn, she broke my record." Kris scowled.

"I'm going to pretend you didn't just swear, and truthfully, what kind of prize does the winner get? Ivory has a term's worth of detentions." Wolf explained, "Then she ran off with her friends, and when she got home she started making her complaints about her life since Vaughn asked for them, and Ivory made her situation out to be… hopeless? I don't know a good word for it, but she sounded like she was going to commit suicide. Then she got calm abruptly, and we're worried that she might kill herself. What's your opinion of what she might do?"

Kris laughed, "Ivory? Kill herself? She wouldn't do that, she would see that as running away, and she backs down. Last year she was attacked by those two boys on her way home, she wouldn't run and fought instead. She got a broken arm, a black eye and a large variety of colorful bruises, but when we asked her if knowing what would happen, would she fight again, she said she'd rather be a cripple than a coward. She wouldn't kill herself, she would do something that she could come back after and gloat her strength. If she does anything, she'll run away."

"Thanks for telling me that, you can go to bed now." Wolf said opening the door, "Oh, and Snape really doesn't appreciate his students goofing off. Incompetence should be the only reason for messing up in his class. That goes for Smoky too."

Kris cringed, "Okay, dad."

**Alius positus**

"Mum, Dani invited me over for a sleepover tomorrow, can I go?" Ivory asked over a quiet dinner that included Ivory's homework.

Vaughn sighed, and decided that her daughter needed a little freedom from her harsh schedule, "Sure, just remember to bring your clothes to school with you. I don't want to have to drive over to Danielle's at nine at night like I did last time."

"I know, I already packed. I knew you would say yes." Ivory said as she finished her last homework problem, "Thank you, I really need some time with my friends."

"The boys are staying over?" Vaughn asked skeptically.

"Only for dinner, if Toni remembers at all. Last time he forgot and we ended up waiting for him for three hours before deciding to eat without him."

"I remember that, the three of you shunned him for a week before you even let him apologize. You should probably go to sleep though, since I doubt you'll get much sleep tomorrow."

"Okay, good night." Ivory said as she got up. As she closed the door to her room she smiled, everything was going as planned.

-

(A/N: Thank you to everyone who pointed out I mixed up Vaughn and Ivory's names in the last chapter, I will be more careful in the future. Just so you know, Smoky is tough on the inside, but is really afraid of death. That is why the Neri twins have so much influence on them. And for GeniusGirl, the Neris could be beautiful like the vampires in Twilight, but they choose not to be to keep a low profile. Also, I decided that also contrary to Twilight vampires, they will not sparkle, it makes their ability to intimidate people lower if the people are too distracted by the fact that they sparkle. Oh, sorry for the delay, I finished writing this on Sunday, but my internet is malfunctioning, hopefully I won't have this problem in the future. Please review!)


	4. Chapter 4

Thomas Kendall was an elderly man living in London. Life had not treated him well, his father had died when he had barely reached his teens and had been left to help his mother to take care of his three younger sisters, one of which being an infant. He had helped without complaint. The older two sisters had left the country and lost contact with their brother. The youngest sister had stayed close though, but her decisions led to further tragedy for her brother. He knew that her husband couldn't be trusted, but didn't listen. Her husband killed her and left his small son behind. Being almost sixty at the time, Thomas took the boy in. Sixteen years later, he was losing his memory, not even able to remember his nephew's name. Therefore, the teenager scowled at him when he addressed him, "Charles, your friend's at the door."

"Uncle, my names Anthony. Which friend?" Toni replied, knowing he was supposed to be patient with the senile old man.

Thomas thought and then reverted to a rough description, "Well, they're a kid. Kind of short. They have… hair. Nice enough kid by the looks of it."

"Boy or girl?" Toni tried to help, but it was obvious his Uncle couldn't remember. Mentally, he was already dead. Toni had been told five years ago that his heart condition could kill him any day, so Toni had separated himself from him so it wouldn't hurt him too much, so he just sighed, "You should take a nap, Uncle, I'll take care of it."

Thomas relented, "Thank you Bartholomew, I think I will."

"It's Anthony." Toni mumbled as he left the room to go see who was at the door. Truthfully, Ivory was the last person he expected, especially with a determined look on her face and her hair in a ponytail. She hated having her hair up, and wore it down unless there was reason to do otherwise. Toni was immediately suspicious, "What the hell are you involving me in now?"

"I'm kidnapping you." Ivory replied simply, which was hard to believe was coming from a nine year old looking completely serious."

"Why?" Toni asked, running his hand through his light brown hair.

Ivory adopted a demonic smile, "I'm not allowed to be running around the streets alone, I'm going to use you as adult supervision."

"Ivory, you're scaring me a little. And I don't think I really count as adult supervision. I'm only seventeen and not what one might call a role model."

"That's kind of the point. Besides, haven't you always wanted to get out of this place, to be free." Ivory coaxed.

"I have to take care of my Uncle." Toni replied, but his voice was bitter.

"You don't have to worry about him." Ivory said after a second, during which she shivered.

Toni's eyes flashed towards her, "What do you mean?"

"He's having a heart attack. Right now. He'll be dead in about twelve seconds." She said coldly.

Toni heard something heavy hit the floor within the house and ran to see what it was, immediately heading to his uncle's room. Thomas was lying on the floor, limbs spread unnaturally. Toni silently searched for a pulse he wouldn't find, then looked up to see Ivory watching him. Her eyes softened when they met his, "You couldn't have done anything, he was destined to die today."

"That's three," Toni said fighting back his emotions like he'd done his whole life, "That's the third death you've accurately predicted and the third time you've said those words. How can you do that?"

Ivory frowned, "I don't know, I guess I'm some sort of sick fortune teller. I can tell when most people are going to die, and several ways that they could. Call it whatever you want, but I call it being an angel of death."

"Ironic that an angel of death's name is a synonym of white." Toni said and sighed, "I guess this means I have no excuse not to go with you."

"I'm not forcing you, but if we're going to leave, it has to be today."

Toni thought for a few minutes, his eyes lingering painfully on his uncle's dead body. Finally he turned to leave the room, "I'm in. Where are we going?"

"East to Bristol, beyond that, I'm not entirely sure."

"Sounds good to me. Anywhere but here sounds good."

"My sentiments exactly."

**Alius Positus**

"We give up,"

"It's not worth arguing with everyone, so,"

"We're going to say that we're twins to make things easier." Lyra finished for Eyra, a skill that had erupted in the last few days between the two. Needless to say, Flitwick was speechless. It was a rare thing to have biological twins in any given year, but having two people pretending to be twins was odd. The girls were completely harmless though, as long as you stayed on their good sides. They had shown one of the Gryffindor fourth years their bad sides the day before, the poor boy was still in the hospital wing.

"Are you sure about this?" Flitwick asked, before going and telling the other teachers about the girls' so they would be expecting the girls to act like twins.

"Yes." They both said in unison.

**Tempus Praeter**

Vaughn frowned, Ivory should have been home an hour ago. More than an hour actually. The letter she had gotten this morning from the boys at Hogwarts was less than comforting at the moment, but as humans usually do, she refused to believe that was the truth. Instead she dialed Dani's phone number in hope that Ivory had gone there for the afternoon, which wasn't particularly odd for her. The phone rang twice before it was picked up.

"Hello, you've reached the bureau of incredibly stupid names, my name is Anklebiter Brainweed. Please enter your submission now to win a free bucket of human eyeballs."

"Danielle, this is Vaughn." Vaughn said rolling her eyes at the girl's hundredth prank call. Her having caller ID had not been good, since she would answer the phone for her friends with prank calls like this, and some were even weirder.

"Oh, sorry Mrs. Potter. Can I help you?" Dani said embarrassed, she rarely used her prank calls on adults and always seemed to think she would get in trouble for it.

"Is Ivory over there? She hasn't come home."

There was a slight pause, "No, and come to think of it, I haven't seen her for two days.

"What do you mean you haven't seen her in two days? She said that you invited her over for a sleepover last night."

"She lied, my grandparents were over last night and I wasn't allowed to have friends over. My mother can attest to that." Dani said, expecting Vaughn to claim that no child of hers would ever lie. But Vaughn knew that Ivory had been acting strangely lately, she didn't know what to expect anymore.

But if she had run away, would she have been stupid enough to go off alone? Ivory might as well ask, "Anyone else been gone the last couple of days?"

"Well, there's Toni, but I don't think he counts if you're thinking what I think you are," Dani said uncertainly, "Yesterday afternoon, Toni's uncle was found dead in his house, he died of a heart attack. His uncle was the only person he had here, and he's always wanted to travel. I don't think he has anything to do with this."

"Okay, thank you anyway, will you call me if you see Ivory?"

"Sure," Dani said, and abruptly hung up.

Vaughn sighed, Ivory had been upset, and had run away. Where would she go? She had spent very little time outside of London, and only knew magical families and her few friends. Ivory was smart, she probably wouldn't go to any of those places if she wanted to really run away. Then again, she was nine, how far could she go? Might as well try calling the rest of the Pack, she quickly dialed.

"Hawthorn household, Nigel speaking."

"Sable, don't call yourself Nigel, it doesn't fit you at all." Vaughn said.

"Oh, Vaughn, I was going to call you in about an hour to talk about something that I think your son had a hand in. You see-"

"Not now Sable, is Ivory over there?" Vaughn interrupted.

"Ivory? Well, give me a sec," Sable said and there was a tense minute that he spent finding out if Ivory was there before picking up the phone, "Sorry, she's not here. How long has she been missing?"

"I don't know, twenty-four to thirty-six hours. She said she was at a friend's house, but her friends haven't even seen her for two days. Any ideas?"

"Check anywhere she usually hangs out, but don't obsess. I'll tell Wolf while I'm telling him something involving Smoky, Kris and glue, and I'll fill out a missing child form while I'm at work tomorrow. You think she ran away?"

"She's been very upset lately and has had some bizarre mood swings. I _know_ that she ran away." Why hadn't she seen this coming?

"Vaughn, Ivory's a smart girl, she'll be fine. Maybe she needs a bit of freedom."

"Sable, do know how much you _aren't_ helping right now. Besides, she's nine."

"You were younger."

"I had adults around."

"Who, me? Like I could be considered an adult. If I was an adult, Wolf never would have been around us. You know that."

"That was different, she's out there alone."

"Vaughn, relax. We'll find her."

"We better."

**Tempus Praeter**

Lunch on Friday was fairly quiet, except for the fact that Smoky was getting bothered for not letting them eat at the Slytherin table. He wouldn't even give them a reason, and paled when they suggested he was just afraid of the Neris. Smoky was saved from this when Wolf came over to them(they had ended up at the Ravenclaw table). He sighed, "Kris, Smoky, come on."

"What? We haven't done anything since Snape's class." Smoky argued as he and Kris stood.

"Yeah, well Sable sent me a letter, and I don't believe what Kris said about you forcing him to do it because it sounds more like something Kris would come up with and you would love to help with. Up to my office." Wolf said and they all marched up to his office, which was very strange since it was lacking in chairs. He made everyone stand up when they entered his office, and he sat on the edge of his desk. He took his place and closed his eyes, "If you have any excuses, tell them to me now, or forever hold you peace."

"It started out as an accident, and then it seemed wrong not to continue." Smoky said, and Kris nodded, knowing he wasn't going to get out of it.

"How exactly do you accidentally glue a pair shoes to a wall?" Wolf asked.

"We didn't glue them," Kris finally said, "We super glued them."

"Well thank god, we didn't want them to ever be able to come off." Wolf said, not telling them that Mrs. Weasley had already visited to clean up the mess with magic to avoid doing damage to either the wall or the shoes, "Now, what were you doing that this even became an issue?"

The two boys were silent for a minute before Smoky said, "You tell him."

"It was your idea,"

"Was not!"

"I only said that since we super glued one shoe, we should do the other one."

"Well… you agreed to help."

"You came up with the idea in the first place."

"Fine," Smoky spat, regretting that he was terrible at thinking on his feet, "We were originally trying to super glue my dad's car keys to the ceiling."

"In the closet?" Wolf asked, the boys nodded.

"Well, the glue kind of missed, and landed on the bottom of shoe, we freaked out and it somehow ended up stuck to a wall. The other one was merely an afterthought." Kris admitted, "So what's our punishment?"

"Well, first you will both be writing lovely letters apologizing to Sable, and I will make sure that you wrote them sincerely. Secondly, you have next Friday afternoon free from one to two, right?" Wolf asked, and both nodded, "Then you two will be helping me administer a test to my fifth years, that's even my class with Jet. I expect you to be there, or there will be hell to pay. Got it?"

"Yes, sir." The boys chorused.

"Also, something's happened," Wolf's frown deepened, "Apparently Ivory's gone missing. If you have any idea where she might be, please tell me."

Smoky had no idea, but Kris quietly said, "I'd look in a big city, like London. She's out there to prove something. But there's big cities all over England, she could be anywhere."

**Three Weeks Later**

It was ninety miles from London to Bristol, and Ivory had allowed Toni to set the pace since he was the one who had recently lost his only remaining family members. It was slow going seeing as they had no transportation since neither could drive. They had only been there a few days, but several things had been established. First of all, Bristol in some ways was a lot more frightening than London. Especially in the area that they two of them had made into their home, a middle class development surrounding a small, forested area. It was in this forested area that Toni and Ivory had set up the tent Toni had camped in when he was a kid. However, when they left their protected home, there was a rather imposing problem, unpleasant neighbor kids that thought it was fun to beat up the nine year old and the seventeen year old that was small for his age. Neither had gotten too hurt so far, Vaughn working in a martial arts dojo had stopped them from getting serious injuries, but the kids outnumbered them.

"What the hell are we doing out here?" Toni asked sitting up against a tree.

Ivory looked up from a small piece of wood she was working at carefully with the pocket knife she had inherited from her dad, "What do you mean? You said you wanted to get out of London. Here we are, out of London."

"I meant, why are living on the streets?" Toni elaborated.

Ivory looked down at what she had finished, it was a mock blade, dull and strong, it's purpose was to add strength to a blow, not cut. She had also carved intricate designs into it, a product of severe boredom. Her bright green eyes locked with his, "It is not so much what you believe in that matters, as the way in which you believe it and proceed to translate that belief into action. Lin Yutang, from _The Importance of Living._"

"Meaning?"

"I believe that in order to understand others, you must walk in their shoes. I cannot understand my parents, they lived on the streets. I also believe knowledge comes through experience, what doesn't kill you makes you stronger." Ivory answered.

"You understand that we could die out here?" Toni said, "Aren't you afraid to die, Bri?"

"Death is nothing," Ivory said slowly, "I'm more afraid to prefer death, to submit to what I don't believe in, to be weak."

"Bri, is this some sort of revenge? I know you're mad at your parents, but isn't this a bit extreme?"

"Is it extreme to try to find yourself? I don't think so, but being an angel of death may have affected my judgment. I picked a time when you were weakened by grief to practically kidnap you, are you sure you want to stay out here with me?"

Toni surprised her by laughing, "I wonder what Dani and Bax would think if they knew I had been kidnapped by a nine year old? Doesn't matter, I guess. I couldn't leave you out here on your own. You being the stubborn fool you are wouldn't let me take you home, and I wouldn't be able to keep your secrets. When they drag you back kicking and screaming you'd probably kill me in some inhumane and disgusting way."

"Come on, I'm not really that violent. I'd probably just stab you and watch you bleed out. Like Pickles." Ivory said with a sadistic grin. Pickles had been a pet rat of the kid down the street that had moved away. Pickles had always snuck up on Ivory and bit her ankle drawing blood that got her really sick two months before. Vaughn and Wolf had never been told that Ivory had tortured and killed that rat in a back alley with a joyful look in her eyes. She cut off it's limbs and gouged out it's eye balls and watched it bleed to death. For a month afterward they had called her Demon, much to her family's confusion.

"So, how long are you planning on staying out here? Long enough to prove a point? The rest of your natural life? Until you're caught?" Toni asked trying to gauge how prepared he should make himself for the future.

"A year, maybe a year and a half. So, long enough to prove my point. I told them why I was leaving, now I'm proving a point and proving that I'm strong at the same time." Ivory answered, knowing that she wanted to be back before Hogwarts.

"Well, we've made it three weeks, how hard can another fifty-two to seventy-eight?" Toni joked, even though he knew that he shouldn't be so ready to accept this plan, but Ivory's confidence was somehow calming.

Little did he know that her being a Death Angel affected her lives in many ways, and not all of them involved being able to see when and how people would die. Her eyes saw people that had been dead for years, and several gave her advice, it was liking having her own counsel in her head. Talking with the dead had led her parents to think she was having a bad fever when she was young that was magical and therefore fooling the muggle thermometer. Really, she was just being introduced to a kind man named Remus Lupin. She'd met others, like Lily, James, this manipulative man named Dumbledore, and the nicest of them all and the most recurring one, Tom.

-

(A/N: The next two years are going to pass quickly, mainly because there is little action until Ivory arrives at Hogwarts. Then a lot happens. If Ivory creeps you out, that's the point. Any questions, comments, complaints, and just plain reviews are welcome. I've been busy, but I'll try to update once every two weeks, at least.)


	5. Chapter 5

(**WARNING**: This chapter is one of the reasons this is rated T, though this chapter is a little graphic, the most graphic one there will be in the story. If this makes you uncomfortable, I apologize. If you want to know how graphic, think about what I've written before, and take another few steps towards graphic. This is mainly for blood, I just don't want a bunch of people to flame because this came without warning. On to the story!)

Worry is one thing that doesn't dissipate over time, as Vaughn soon discovered. As Fall faded into Winter, things barely changed. Ivory stayed mysteriously missing, as did Toni, and after four months, the police were forced to give up the investigation. The only way she would be found was by chance. Vaughn and Wolf once again had been turned against the police.

During detention with Wolf, Kris and Smoky had the pleasure of being flipped off in the traditional way for seventeen different questions. Smoky found out that while it seemed the Neri twins were doing sincere hand gestures they had really been flipping him off on a regular basis. Kris became worried when Smoky averted his eyes and said it wasn't a big deal. Kris tried to pry it out of him, but he would leave whenever he tried. Eventually, Kris was forced to drop the issue. Eyra and Lyra became widely known as the Weasley twins(which pissed off Draco). Angel became well known as being the second best in her year at charms. Next to the Neris, who were perfect at everything and made a point of it.

Wolf's discomfort with his daughter's disappearance was known only by two people, his wife and his godfather. Sirius had managed to make a fair rule as minister, establishing equality for werewolves, vampires, half bloods and muggleborns along with cleaning up the judicial system and getting rid of the dementors. He immediately knew it was a bad sign when his second in command, Draco Malfoy, had told him that Harry was there. It was then that Harry told someone just how upset he was. His exact words were, "I lived on the streets for three years, and it was hard enough in a group of six. If she's out there alone, she must be going through hell. I never wanted my children to have to live like that or through a war."

-

The rebel never finds peace. He knows what is good and, despite himself, does evil. The value which supports him is never given to him once and for all.

-Albert Camus

Early spring had brought a lot of hardships to Ivory and Toni, over the winter Toni had gotten very sick. Ivory hated that she saw two different dates for her death, one in about a week, mid April, and the other in forty-seven years. She was moved by his near death, and knew that pneumonia could be cured. However, the boys that hated them had been particularly violent during winter and Ivory hadn't had the guts to purposely get in their way yet. But Toni…

She had to go.

She piled all of the blankets on Toni and after initial hesitation she picked up her pocket knife and examined the blade. Deciding not to try to convince herself otherwise, she closed the knife and jammed it in her pocket along with her money and left before she could change her mind. Ivory hated being alone, and as if she had called him, Tom appeared, walking by her side. He had this dark aura about him, but he made sense to her like no one ever had before. And he understood her problems, and proved so by saying, "His only future involves leaving you behind, and you need to convince him to."

"Easier said than done," Ivory replied quietly, "He has strong morals."

"And you don't?"

"I left my family seven months ago and I'm not returning until next spring. I have no morals."

"You're risking your life to protect a friend." Tom pointed out.

"Like you're one to talk about morals," Ivory admonished, "After all, you were the evilest man to live. Until my dad killed you, that is."

Tom smirked, "And yet, you still talk to me. Interesting."

"Shut up, Tom." Ivory said as she entered the drug store and made her purchases. Tom followed her, but kept his mouth shut. She was thankful for not having to be mad at someone she couldn't threaten. Especially since she usually threatened death. She began the two block walk back to the small forest when her luck ran out. Eight boys, big and mean, loomed into view. She could see the exact moment they saw her, their eyes lit up when they saw their new victim. Ivory squared her shoulders, she wasn't going to hide from these jerks, she was above them.

"Hey look, it's the little mouse." The lead of the group sneered, he was a big kid, past the levels of husky and fluffy, and approaching chunky. He was the worst of them all, perhaps because he was a sexist git, "Do your parents know where you are, little mouse?"

Ivory didn't shy away, it wasn't in her nature, "Do yours? I bet they're at home wishing that their fat piglet was home to dote on."

The boy grew red, and grabbed her by the scruff of her shirt, "Do you know who you're insulting? I'm Aiden V. Dursley, and I will not allow some midget girl to insult me."

"So you're going to beat up a nine year old girl with seven friends? Ooh, I shiver at your masculinity. I bet you don't even know what masculinity means." Ivory said pushing Aiden's hand away and began walking away, thinking she had won. However, Aiden caught her arm.

"Not so fast mouse, I'm not going to beat you up. I'm going to do something far more enjoyable… for me." Aiden growled holding her, and slowly pulling her closer with demonic eyes.

Ivory's heart skipped a beat as she realized what he was saying. She became frantic, but she was helpless against the boy. Over his shoulder she saw Tom motion towards his pocket, and out of habit she copied the movement and found the object he wanted her to find. His time till death decreased to mere seconds. As Aiden's hand neared her waist, her left hand, her dominant hand, opened and swung the pocket knife in a smooth motion cut short by hitting something fairly solid. The arm holding her. Adrenaline took over and soon the hand fell from her arm, and Aiden was lying on the ground.

She blinked a few times when she realized there was no movement, the other boys had left. Only she, Tom and Aiden remained. Tom was hiding a smile, and it took a moment to figure out why. She looked directly down, there was a human hand, the one that had grabbed her arm with evil intentions. It had been hacked away a few inches from the wrist. A few feet away was the rest of the body, his chest was riddled with stab wounds. She counted, nineteen in all, including one on the hip and a nick in his throat. Blood was pooling around the body that was paling and continuing to bleed out. There was so much blood…

As a lump was steadily building up in her throat she looked down at her hands. They were soaked with blood, and her knife was still in her left hand, bloody from the tip of the blood to the hilt. She followed the blood spatter up her arms where it finally stopped with a few spots on her chest. She looked down at her feet, the soles had a thick layer of blood on them. It suddenly dawned on her what exactly she had done, she had killed someone. Not just a mindless rat that wanted to bite her, but a human being that had a family, wants needs, aspirations, friends.

"He deserved it for trying to do… _that_." Tom sneered, trying to comfort her, but it was in vain.

She slowly closed the pocket knife caught between dropping it and running, or taking it and going back to camp. She compromised, she reluctantly put the knife in her pocket, took a few steps out of the blood pool, took off her shoes, and ran. Once she was deep in the forest she allowed herself to collapse and throw the knife as far as she could. How could she have done that? She hadn't even thought about the knife until Tom brought it up. But killing… It came naturally. And she had covered up her tracks well so far. She took the weapon, left no prints, her hair had been tightly braided that morning so she left no hairs. She made sure she wouldn't track blood into the forest, and all she had to worry about was the seven boys.

"What the hell am I thinking? I haven't even come to terms with killing him and I'm worrying about not getting caught." Ivory said, voice wavering because she was starting to cry. She held her head in her hands as she always did when she needed comfort, realizing afterwards she had spread the blood to her face.

"You get used to the blood eventually. After your third or fourth kill." Tom assured her, putting his hand on her shoulder.

"Don't touch me, you bastard," Ivory screamed, "There wasn't even supposed to be a first one! And it's your fault that it happened, now leave me the hell alone."

"Of course," Tom said softly, "I'm warning, just turning evil is easier than trying to redeem yourself. You'll crave blood eventually. I know I did."

"Bastard," Ivory said, but said bastard had already left. She started to think about survival again. The boys wouldn't talk, they would have to admit to participating in the harassment of a girl and not stopping potential rape. Now she had to worry about evidence, she collected the knife. She'd have to wash the blood off. She picked up her shoes again and headed to camp. Toni was still asleep, which was good. If Toni had seen her covered in blood like this, he would leave immediately. She wanted to explain her actions first. She changed into clean clothes and washed the blood off of her face, hands and arms.

She set her knife aside as she built up the campfire again, then added her bloody shoes and clothes. She fiddled with the knife, the blood had dried and gave the metal a terrible red tint that made the reflection of her eyes the same color. She was no longer human, she was a monster, a demon, a murderer. She had never treated death with truly ill regard, death was an end to all life despite souls remaining in an after image. She never even thought her father had committed a crime in killing Voldemort. Yet something also evil being killed by her hands was completely different.

Toni awoke and sat up, smelling something peculiar. He left the tent and saw Ivory holding a knife while the fire blazed and put off odd colored smoke. She as hypnotized by the knife and her eyes were red with tears. He hadn't been feeling well and had decided to sleep in, but surely he hadn't been asleep long enough for hell to freeze over. He never thought he would see Ivory, the pinnacle of strength, cry. Toni watched her face carefully, "Bri, are you okay?"

"No." Came her curt answer. She made no attempt to elaborate.

"What happened?"

"I got you medicine, it will make you feel better. Promise to take it no matter what I say." Ivory said looking at him, her eyes emotionless.

He looked at the medicine, and still confused said, "I promise, now what the hell happened?"

"Those boys found me, the threatened to… I would rather die than let them do _that_ to me. I don't know, it happened so fast. I didn't even know what happened until after the fact. You have to leave, if I'm found, I don't want you to be involved." Ivory said in a raspy voice as she looked back into the fire.

That brought Toni's mind back to the stagnant smell in the air, "Bri, what are you burning?"

She hesitated, "My clothes."

"Why?"

"They were covered in blood. It's for my own safety."

"Blood, are you saying that you…" Toni finally saw the odd hue of the knife, "Oh my god, you killed him, you actually killed a person. What's going to happen now?"

Ivory's shoulders slumped, "It's too dangerous for you to stay with me, I'm a murderer. I covered my tracks but… I don't want you involved if I'm found. Take what you want, but leave."

"Bri, you're only nine…" Toni said, torn by his reluctance to desert a child, "What are you going to do?"

"I'm going to stay out here long enough for the police to give up the investigation. I'll go home next spring, just under a year. Besides, I'm almost ten. I'll be fine." Ivory assured him.

Toni had grown quiet, but seemed to be realizing she was right, he had no choice but to leave. He packed his clothes and left everything else. Se would probably need it to survive, then he walked back to her by the fire, "Be careful Bri, I still can't believe you killed someone. You may be an angry person, but never truly murderous. Please tell me you feel bad about it."

"I can't believe I killed another person either," Her eyes met his again, "Your death isn't for a long time, make something of yourself. You deserve it."

"Thanks Bri," Toni said, but he seemed unsure of what to do, "I guess this is good bye. I hope the next time I see you isn't on the news as a convict."

"Yeah, me too." Ivory sighed, "Bye."

Toni began heading North, the dead body was South. Ivory started packing her camp up, she was moving. She would hide in the forest for about a week, watch the investigation, and after that decide whether to stay in the small forest or to move somewhere else.

**Two days later**

"My name is Chief Nigel Hawthorn from the London Department, I understand you need help on a murder case." Sable said to the head of the investigation, a former military sergeant that led a strict investigation. He was Detective Marsh.

Marsh looked him over critically, "You're the best detective in London? I guess you'll do. We have a murder case with practically no evidence, probably an experienced killer. The family's willing to pay big if we can find the killer and bring them to justice. And you should see the body."

"That bad?" Sable asked when he heard Marsh's tone on the last sentence.

"Yeah, victim is fourteen year old Aiden Dursley, son of that prosecution lawyer and her husband who is studying law." Marsh said as they made their way to the morgue, and found the cabinet with the boy's body, before opening it, Marsh warned, "I'm warning you, this isn't pretty."

"Is a murder victim ever a pretty sight?" Sable replied as the body was rolled out from the cabinet on a table. Sable swallowed hard, even though the body had been slashed up pretty badly, and one hand was completely missing.

"Can you tell me anything about the killer from this?" Marsh asked, it was a test of his skills.

Sable took a closer look at the lacerations, "Left handed by the angle of the cuts, and at least six inches shorter than the victim because the cuts go up. It was a pretty passionate attack, nearly twenty lacerations and the hand… The victim had to have been holding the killer's arm or something. In order to get this close the killer would have to have been someone easily underestimated, otherwise it doesn't make sense for him to have died. Any witnesses?"

"Seven potentials, but none of them are speaking. One said something about the forest. I want you to help us sweep the forest that's a block away from the crime scene. And before you ask, there was no weapon, prints, hair or anything from the killer. There's a few bloody shoe prints in the pooled blood, but we have nothing to match them to."

Sable nodded, and in half an hour he was helping search the forest. They had found what used to be a camp, but all evidence of people had been erased recently and all that remained was a small fire pit and dead grass from being covered by a tent. Now they were searching throughout the forest. Sable had one East from the camp alone, and ever since he had felt as though he was being watched, and he looked up to find himself right. He blinked a few times, could it really be, "Ivory?"

Ivory moved a couple feet closer, but kept her distance, "What's going on here? There's so many police officers."

"There was a murder, we think they killer's here. Now where have you been all this time? You should go home." Sable said moving closer, but she took a couple steps back to keep the distance between them the same.

"I'm not going home, even if there is a killer out here." Ivory said stubbornly.

"Ivory, don't be stupid. You're still a kid, you need to come home. Your parents are worried sick."

"I'm sick of them, I can't go home, I can't go back to that." Ivory said looking fondly at the air next to her, "And I'm not alone,"

"What are you talking about?" Sable said, was he missing someone being there. Ivory smiled and made a move to run, and knowing he couldn't out run the young girl, pulled out his taser. It wasn't a pleasant tool to use, but it got the job done.

"I need to find a me that I can be happy with, I don't want to be someone I'm not anymore. He told me that, Moony did. Sorry, but I can't do that at home, so I have no intention of going." Ivory said, and Sable forced himself to pull the trigger. The cartridge fell to the ground at a wave of Ivory's hand. She winked, "Don't worry I can take care of myself."

In less than a second she had run off into the deep brush. She wasn't seen for another two months. A killer was never found for the murder of Aiden Dursley, and his parents were devastated. Sable never forgave himself for not being able to catch Ivory, and was always bothered by Ivory's seemingly invisible friend Moony. The name was familiar, but he couldn't quite place it. It had been years since it had held meaning for him.

-

(A/N: Well, this was a cheerful chapter to write(author begins twitching from own writing). Sable doesn't recognize Moony as being Remus because he hasn't heard of Remus in about sixteen years and Wolf never called him Moony. Ivory is having a really hard time living with herself right now, especially with the fact that killing came so easily to her. Questions, compliments, complaints and anything else you feel like typing in a review is always welcome!)


	6. Chapter 6

"You aren't seriously going to stay out here until next spring, are you?" Remus asked Ivory, who seemed to be in her own little world as he sat next her in the countryside just outside of Bristol. She nodded though, proving that she could be in her own world and memorize everything said at the same time.

Ivory looked at Remus for the first time in years, he wasn't like a ghost. It was more like… a drawing. It looked realistic, but had minor strange details and was outlined with black. An inch wide border surrounded his every feature, but other than that, he looked perfectly normal. Remus was the most realistic of them all, perhaps because he talked about her father constantly, and she couldn't bring herself to. He had a higher level of understanding when it came to feelings and emotion. Yet, after a month, Ivory was still bothered by the fact that she had killed another human.

"I don't deserve to live." Ivory said, a quiet phrase she had said many times.

"It was self defense, would you have preferred the alternative?" Remus argued, which made the young girl shiver.

"No…" She looked up at the clouds, "It's my birthday. But I can't even pretend to be happy. I'm a killer."

"It's not like you're going to kill again," Remus said, knowing that anyone this adverse to killing would never do such a thing again unless absolutely necessary.

"I keep on thinking that, but there's a little voice that keeps telling me that it's okay to kill. What if I _do_ kill again?"

"First of all, that little voice is Tom, and you wouldn't be in this situation if you had listened to me and stopped talking to him. And you won't kill again." Remus assured her.

"It's too hard to give up talking to Tom, he knows what it's like to hate a large generalized group of people. I can relate to him." Ivory defended.

"Obviously not too hard, you've ignored him since it happened." Remus said softly, "At least think about going home sooner."

"I need a few more months, and I'm not going back to that muggle school, so I'm coming back after term starts." Ivory said, knowing that she would just be another year behind her friends and have to deal with the stupid headmaster again.

"If you leave it open like that, you'll never actually go home." Remus said quietly.

Ivory thought for a second, "It will be a lovely Christmas." Remus smiled, after being gone for fifteen and a half months, coming back on Christmas would make anyone happy. Or completely ruin it. Hopefully the former.

**Tempus Praeter**

The Den, Vaughn and Wolf's house, had always been where Christmas was held, which included the entire Pack(children and Sirius included). About midday, Draco, Ginny, Luna, Neville, Hermione and Ron all brought their children and they would play around. The 'twins' had become very close, almost to the point where they could talk for the other and their skills had always lain in transfiguration, to the point where Professor Rivers was assigning them extra work to keep them entertained during class. Angel had become increasingly more loyal to her Hufflepuff friends and could often be found helping the other Hufflepuffs with charms and herbology. Although, at times her optimism seriously pissed others off.

Jet, now in sixth year, was still brooding about his part in last year's play. They had put on Macbeth, and just to torture him, Wolf had cast him as one of the witches, the oldest one to be exact. No matter how hard the class was laughing, it was not funny. Niether was Wolf insisting that if he had really wanted to be cruel he would have cast him as Lady Macbeth to make him a girl and give him more stage time. Smoky never missed a chance to remind his older brother about his part. It had become obvious that Smoky was more like himself when he was away from Hogwarts, yet he always claimed he was having no trouble at school. Smoky's original lack of control with his fire at school had faded to a tool he used only when in dueling club, which only second years and up were allowed to attend. Everyone in the Pack had joined, even Angel. While Smoky did best at potions and he and Kris were both avid learners when it came to care of magical creatures, Kris had inherited his parents prowess in Defense. He had quieted down a bit since his sister left though, her being one of his closest friends made the loss devastating. Now he was standing in the middle of sidewalk on a snowy day in the outskirts of London with a sling on his arm from messing with blast-ended skrewts watching the others have a snowball(even though Smoky was cheating by warming the air around him enough to melt the snowballs before they could hit him).

Kris shook his head and a dark shadow in the distance caught his eye, someone was walking towards them. They lived on a dead end road where most of their neighbors were out of town, and the rest were staying in for the day. No one should have been walking from that direction, but the fact that there was a person wasn't bothering him as much as who it was. Black hair was blowing in the wind as she shivered in a coat that wasn't made for temperatures this cold, and as she looked up, she met her brother's eyes, "Hey, Kris." She greeted.

"You've been gone for over a year and you can say hi like that?" Kris said, and the others turned to see the brother and sister standing ten feet from each other.

Ivory smiled, truly smiled, "I guess, did you expect me to burst into tears and apologize for leaving?"

Kris narrowed his eyes, she was a lot more confident than the last time he had seen her, and she actually looked proud of herself. He smiled, "If you did I would probably claim that you weren't my sister."

"Good." Ivory said, truly amused by the prospect, "Man, it's cold. I think I should I go inside considering I have this pathetic excuse for a coat."

"So do you plan on staying?" Kris asked, glad to see her smile warmly.

"Yeah, that's the plan."

"Ivory's back!" Angel cried and hugged Ivory's arms to her sides. Ivory looked frightened by the sudden action and made a strange look of disgust.

"Does she do this often?" Ivory asked as she pushed Angel away.

"Constantly, but eventually you find ways to get her Hufflepuff friends to stand in for you." Smoky said messing up her hair, like he had always done, and she pushed his arm away playfully.

"Come on Smoky-" Eyra said.

"That's so Slytherin of you." Lyra finished.

"Finally gave into the whole twins thing, didn't you?" Ivory asked, receiving synchronized nods in reply. She laughed, "What about Conner and Rebel?"

Conner blushed, "I haven't done anything spectacular, as usual." Shy little kid thought he was pathetic, but what he said made everyone roll their eyes. He knew strategy like no one else and only lost chess games to his dad, though he was winning more and more often.

Rebel put a hand on her shoulder, "I've been wondering where in the world my best friend was."

"Sweet, but you have to elaborate on whether you meant physically or mentally," Ivory replied taking his hand from her shoulder and holding it for a few seconds, "Physically in Bristol, mentally in hell until a few weeks ago. Now, as much fun as talking about what I've been doing is, I'd rather not have to go through it twice, so shall we go in?"

**Alius Positus**

There was a distinct clatter as the kids came in and the parents prepared for the chaos that was sure to ensue. They walked into the living room with Kris in front and the other six standing in a line behind him, all smiling suspiciously. Kris, newly appointed spokesman of the group, spoke, "You're never going to guess who we found."

After several stupid suggestions(the tooth fairy, the devil, an Elvis impersonator, and a homeless person), the group cut apart to reveal Ivory in somewhat tattered clothes. She had thinned out considerably, but looked happy despite her obvious malnutrition. Her hair went down past her waist and was wind blown and sparkling from snow that had previously melted on her hair. She noticed how everyone seemed irked by her sudden appearance and nervously waved, "Hi,"

"Hi? Ivory, do you have any idea how long you were gone?" Vaughn asked, it was she who looked the most concerned.

"Four hundred seventy-seven days, four hours." Ivory replied promptly.

"And just where were you?"

"Bristol, streets are nice there and there's this cozy little forest right in the middle of town." Ivory answered.

Vaughn suddenly realized what her daughter had been doing, "You went alone?"

Ivory shook her head, "For the first seven months I was with Toni, then he needed to leave in order to have a future." No one even realized how carefully she was wording that answer.

"Why didn't you come back after that? You shouldn't have been out on the streets alone." Vaughn said, Wolf was just watching and choosing not to help out yet.

"I wasn't ready to come back. And I'm never alone." Ivory said calmly and with assurance, which is how she had said everything.

"What do you mean you're never alone?" Wolf finally spoke up, but unlike Vaughn, he looked more relieved and curious than he did angry.

She didn't say anything at first, but her smile faltered, "I don't think I would be able to fully explain it. I guess you could say I have voices in my head, like on TV when the have the devil on one shoulder and an angel on the other. So, I guess you could say I was alone."

"Oh, so now you hear voices in your head, did they tell you to run away?" Vaughn asked accusingly.

"Actually, the idea was my own and several of the voices tried to stop me, the others kept quiet." Ivory answered, once again smiling.

"I have one more question, should we be expecting you to run away again?" Vaughn asked, seeming ready to drop the subject until later.

"Not unless you try to make me go to that muggle school again, and then I can promise you that I will run away until the end of term."

"You ran away because you didn't want to go to a muggle school?" Wolf asked quietly, which almost made her falter. Almost.

"Among other reasons, some changing as I went. It was only a few weeks ago that I was mentally capable of returning, after I left I started having issues, but they're gone now." Ivory replied slyly, her eyes darkening as they looked at a seemingly empty corner of the room, but quickly focused her attention back to the people around her, "So what have I missed?"

Everyone was a little frightened by her ability to change moods so quickly, and Wolf was the first one to decide she was acting like this because she was nervous about being back home. So he decided to begin answering her question, "Well, your brother and Smoky have established themselves as the troublemakers at Hogwarts, although I was surprised that they decided that Professor Rivers has become their favorite target."

"We're too close to most of the staff to be able to get away with anything. Rivers just brushes it off and says that he remembers being our age. We were going to go after Snape, but that's a bit clichéd." Kris said.

"Lyra was somehow possessed to allow herself to be referred as a Weasley." Draco scoffed, once again showing disgust that his daughter was disgracing herself in his mind.

"Oh, what's wrong with being a Weasley?" Ginny challenged with her hands on her hips.

Draco took stock of the situation and made the appropriate reply, "… Nothing."

Ginny smiled, "That's what I thought."

"Well, Conner and Rebel went to Hogwarts last year, Rebel is a Gryffindor and Conner's a Ravenclaw." Hermione said, changing the subject to something a little less argumentative.

"I had a feeling Conner would be a Ravenclaw, he's a smart kid despite how he insults himself." Ivory said, then looked at Rebel smiling, "I'm a bit surprised that you're in Gryffindor. Aren't they supposed to be chivalrous and courageous? Didn't you have me kill that bug that was in your room?"

"It was an earwig! Those things are creepy." Rebel said in defense, "Besides, Lyra 'accidentally' made it ten times it's usual size. How did you kill it, it was almost as big as you were, and you were only four."

Attention returned to Ivory who was thinking back to the occasion with a fond smile, "I have always had an unusually good control of my magic, even back then. I'm not exactly sure what it was, but it got rid of the bug, didn't it?"

"You were able to use magic at that age? I wonder what house you'll be in." Sirius said.

"She's smart, probably Ravenclaw." Hermione said, and several of the adults agreed with her.

"No, she's got that stupid Gryffindor pride and isn't afraid of anything, I bet she'll be a Gryffindor." Vaughn argued.

"Not a Hufflepuff, she has too much anger to be a hufflepuff." Rebel said, and no one doubted that.

"Slytherin," Wolf betted, "She's powerful, clever and keeps secrets. She'll be a Slytherin."

"Why would she be a Slytherin? That's the house all the evil wizards come from." Sirius said, still used to the old house stereotypes.

"Ahem," Draco coughed, and Sirius seemed to realize just what he had said.

"Oh, sorry, not you, other dark wizards."

"Right,"

"I guess you'll just have to be patient for nine more months. You mind if I get cleaned up?" Ivory asked, and they all started wondering how she had lived that long without most of her clothes. Or a shower. Perhaps some things were better left as mysteries. They quickly nodded and Ivory left to go up to her room.

"What the bloody hell happened to her?" Ron asked when she was sure to be out of hearing distance.

"No idea, but it's freaking me out," Vaughn said shaking her head, "She used to be so upset by everything, now she just smiles and takes everything optimistically. Whether it matches her words of not. And she brushes everything off like it's nothing."

"I know, and all I keep seeing is her when I was investigating that murder," Sable said, he'd told them about the unsolvable case. Out of the three witnesses, two had killed themselves and the other kept claiming it was him, but didn't have a reason and gave a conflicting description of the weapon. It changed weekly. Sable sighed, "She's always so careful about everything she says, and refused to let me anywhere near her. Somehow I keep thinking of her as a suspect, but she couldn't really kill anyone, could she?"

The room was quiet before Ferret shook her head, "I don't think she could. It's one thing to have her morbid sense of humor, but she's too innocent. And if she did, she probably had a good reason for it."

Sable looked at his feet, "I would have preferred a firm 'no' rather than, saying she would have liable cause to do so if she did."

**Alius Positus**

"Glad I didn't grow much," Ivory mumbled as she picked out one of her few pairs of jeans that she had left, since she had usually worn skirts and the jeans she had brought with her had worn thin. She went through her old pajama shirts and picked her dad's t-shirt that she had stolen soon after he began teaching. She had always worn it as a comforting item, and she really needed to calm down, despite the fact that she could still wear it as a nightgown. She quickly showered and put on everything but her jeans before returning to her room to find the one person she didn't want to see on her bed. "Leave me the hell alone."

"What happened to the lovely friendship we once had, Bri?"

"It died along with… Just go away Riddle, I don't need you messing with me."

"Back to surnames, Potter?"

"Yeah, now why are you here?"

"To watch you."

Ivory suddenly remembered she still had to put her jeans on, "Pervert."

"I seem to remember your father calling me the same thing. Don't worry, I won't watch you get dressed." Tom said turning around to look at the dust covered pictures on her nightstand.

"You better not, perv." Ivory said pulling her jeans on.

"I thought you were calling me Riddle."

"Whatever, just leave."

"Did you call me your little shoulder devil?" Tom asked as Ivory put her shoes on to leave.

"Perhaps homicidal, annoying son of a squib would have been a more accurate description. Nah, devil is easier to say, now go away." Ivory said and left the room. She hated the fact that Tom was still worming his snakey way back into her life. After having nearly healed from killing… that boy… it hurt too much. She'd forgotten his name, it was better to think of the boy as less that human and as impersonal as she could. Who says the victims have it bad, the murderer has to live with what they've done. _Just make it to Hogwarts and everything will be better_ she repeated over and over. It never helped.

-

(A/N: Sorry, I was really distracted while writing this, and that's why it took so long. The next chapter should be given plenty of time since my birthday celebrations are stealing a lot of time. Finally going to be 16! Next chapter will include some Hogwarts stuff, and maybe the sorting, though if you've been paying attention, you already know Ivory's house(NOT HUFFLEPUFF). This chapter is dedicated to GeniusGirl, who yelled at me today for not updating. Please review!)


	7. Chapter 7

"Is it straight?"

"Yes,"

"It is not you liar, don't listen to him Ivory, you should never listen to him." Remus said looking pointedly at Tom, who had been trying to mislead Ivory.

Ivory listened to Remus as she took out the seventh attempt at a ponytail in the direct center of the back of her head. She sighed, "Screw it, I don't know how mum manages to get these things straight. I'll just leave it down."

"Your hair goes down past your waist, how can you deal with it being down?" Remus asked.

"Push all of it behind my shoulders and hope for a miracle," Ivory answered easily.

"Why are you messing with your hair again? It seems like a waste of time." Tom said disinterestedly, entertaining himself by pushing his insubstantial hand through the mirror repeatedly.

"It's my birthday, I thought I'd do something special. If you don't want to be bored by this you can go away, I've been trying to get you to for over a year." Ivory replied as she moved to leave the room.

"Ah, but that would be doing what you want. Where's the fun in that?" Tom answered and moved to follow her.

"No Tom, they already think I have psychological issues because I accidentally talk to you, I don't want you following me around today. Remus can come if he wants to though." Ivory added and Tom pouted.

"Why does he get to go?" Tom asked, he had become fairly childish when he was being punished like this.

"First of all, Remus doesn't annoy me. Secondly," Ivory frowned at the memory, "Aiden."

Ivory shook her head and left the room faking a smile, Remus following her. Tom scowled, one little mistake and he hadn't earned her trust back since.

**Tempus Praeter**

Remus smiled, Ivory had been reasonably happy yesterday for her birthday, but now… She was actually smiling, or grinning would probably be a better word. Yesterday she had been promised a wand, and just five minutes ago she had found out it would just be her and her dad (Vaughn was subbing for another teacher at the martial arts dojo she taught at and it had been arranged for Kris to spend the day at the Hawthorn's). After a trip to the Leaky Cauldron via floo powder she found herself in an overcrowded Diagon Alley, and after two minutes of utterly failing to stay next to Wolf, she did something she hadn't done since… She had never done this before, actually.

Silently she tried to hold his hand to stop them from being separated, which was weird enough. After seeing that that wasn't working so well, she moved his hand to her opposite shoulder and smiled knowing that this would work. Wolf zoned out for a half a second, remember how he had grudgingly done something similar his first time in Diagon Alley. Of course, that had been years ago and he had allowed himself to be led around by an almost complete stranger because it was better than being alone surrounded by complete strangers. Ivory was by his side because they were family. Vaughn had said one of her supposed reasons for leaving was that she never even saw him, which made Wolf feel a little uneasy.

Finally they arrived at their first destination, Ollivanders, even though it was now being run with his nephew. Wolf greeted Ollivander, so he missed the expression on Ivory's face as she saw the end of his life span. Thirty-seven and a half hours, or forty hours. Ivory casually averted her eyes looking at the middle-aged nephew behind the counter, who was smiling as he rolled his eyes at his uncle talking with Wolf, "Shall we get this lovely process started?"

He did some measurements of her arm and hand and then made his way to the shelves full of wands and pulled out a few boxes before returning. He hesitated in which to have her try first, but soon held one out for her to hold, "It's holly with unicorn hair, it's a bit long, but we'll see what happens. Just give it a wave."

Ivory waved it gingerly… which resulted in a small explosion about two feet from her face. She handed it back to the younger Ollivander and wiped the thin layer of soot from her face.

"Okay, that obviously didn't work, you don't react well with the unicorn hair. I spent years studying wands and found that some things always have the same reaction for people who use a certain core," He said pushing a few of the wands aside and he picked another, "Beech and phoenix feather, nine inches."

This time there was a shower of sparks that almost caused injury, but the wand was snatched from her hand and the sparks vanished. With a quizzical look on his face he disappeared into the long row of shelves and returned empty handed, "Where the hawthorn and phoenix tail, eight and three quarter inches?"

"Top shelf behind the counter in the box labeled ebony and dragon heartstring." The older Ollivander answered.

His nephew shrugged and climbed up to retrieve the box, surprised to find it was in fact the hawthorn wand he had been looking for. Which made him wonder why it had been labeled thus in the first place, but figured that it was better not to have to deal with his uncle's rantings. He handed it to the young girl, almost afraid of the consequences, hawthorn wands were unstable at best when they had phoenix tail cores, and usually burst into flame while they were being made. Even so, a handful of hawthorn and phoenix tail and hawthorn wands had been made, and had all been matched with those who had unstable magic themselves in order to balance it out. And those with unstable magic generally had equally unstable minds that tended towards evil, the best example being Gellert Grindelwald.

Ivory tentatively took the wand, having not enjoyed her previous experiences, but relaxed as soon as she held it. The wand had an almost calming effect as she slowly moved her wand in an automatic movement, lifting the wand's box from the counter and setting it back down. She looked up to see three faces staring at her in awe, "What?"

"You aren't supposed to be able to do that for another four months," Wolf said, but he was smiling in approval. He had always said that just because rules are there, doesn't mean they have to be followed if you can manage to get away with it.

"Well, that was certainly unusual, but I can say that is definitely the wand for her." The younger Ollivander said as Wolf payed.

Meanwhile, the older Ollivander was quietly talking to Ivory, "You are as rare as that wand is, one in millions. Or in your case, more. You have a power that no one else has ever had, one that puts you above everyone else."

"It's a burden, not a power," Ivory said softly as she watched his time reduce to a few hours and saw how he would die.

"The hawthorn is bush that grows roses, beautiful roses. But beware the innocent looking hawthorn, for it is riddled with thorns. Do not let it consume you like it has those before you." Ollivander said talking about the previous owners of wands like hers, but she took it a bit more literally.

She grew quiet, but before leaving, she said to the younger Ollivander, "Don't blame yourself, you can't stop the inevitable."

He made a face, "What's that supposed to mean?"

"You'll know soon enough." She replied, leading the way through the door, and Wolf followed her with an interested expression.

"What was that about? I know Mr. Ollivander looks sick, but it's not like he's going to die today." Wolf said.

She looked torn, but with a little encouragement from Remus she gave an answer, "bitola di mors, it's a little magic bug that burrows into the bodies of young magical creatures and feed off their magic, they gave a further sense of enlightenment to the person, but a longer, more painful death. It eats the organs you don't need to live before eating the heart. He has one, and today is his final day."

"How do you know these things?"

"I got bored three summers back and studied ways to die. I had nothing better to do." Ivory shrugged.

**Tempus Praeter**

"Okay, only eight of us will fit in the compartment, someone needs to leave." Eyra said, pointing out that there was nine people, Eyra, Lyra, Conner, Rebel, Smoky, Angel, Kris, Ivory and Mark Hart, Angel's friend from hufflepuff in her year.

"Sorry Ivory, looks like you have to leave." Kris said.

"Wait, why me?" Ivory asked, looking at the others in the train compartment.

"You're the youngest, we're all second and third years, and your just a little firstie." Kris said slowly pushing her out of the compartment, "So, bye." He pushed the door closed as soon as she was outside, and she glared at the door for a second before moving to find a compartment. Of course, they were all full except the last one, that only had two people in it.

"Would you two mind if I sat with you?" She asked, pushing her hair out of her face for the hundredth time that day.

The Neri twins looked at her strangely before answering in unison, "Feel free."

"Thank you," she said closing the door behind her and moving to the corner to sit.

The twins hadn't stopped looking at her, and finally Cyrene spoke, "You aren't afraid to sit near us? Most people avoid us."

"There's nowhere else to sit, and as long as you don't bother me, I'm fine." Ivory answered, "But yes, I do think the two of you have a frightening aura."

"Yet you stay." Vincinte commented.

"If I ran from everything that scared me, I'd have no sanctum left in this world." Ivory said with finality, and then drifted into her own little world.

Cyrene began talking to him in Italian for privacy, but Vincinte wasn't paying attention. His curiosity had been piqued by the strange girl who had decided he wasn't worth being afraid of. That was new to him.

**Tempus Praeter**

There were three people left to be sorted this year, and finally McGonagall called, "Potter, Ivory."

Ivory walked confidently to the stool and sat, letting her hair fall between her and her audience. She felt the sorting hat settle on her head, followed by a voice in her head. _Well, you definitely aren't a hufflepuff, either a Slytherin or Gryffindor…_

…

_Aren't you going to claim that you don't want to be in one house of the other?_

_Just sort me for merlin's sake._

_Which house do you want be in? I could be convinced either way at this point._

_Some sorting hat you are, just choose the one I'd be best in._

_Fine… definitely not chivalrous, and you are a black seer, an ambitious angel… SLYTHERIN!_

The sorting hat was lifted from her head and she stood and walked towards the Slytherin table, seeing there was only one spot that was really available. Next to the Neris. She chose to sit next to Vincinte, quickly putting one arm on the table in between the two of them. Vincinte, was resting his head on his hand with his elbow on the table as well, putting up a second barrier. Of course, while Ivory was listening to the beginning of the year speech, Vincinte's mind was wandering. Thinking about the girl next to him to be exact, who did she think she was? Sure daughter of the killer of the almighty god of evil, Voldemort.

In his musings, he completely missed the fact that his elbow was slipping on the table, and before long, his arm slipped out from beneath his head and collided with her elbow. He retracted his arm, then felt a sharp pain on his cheek and his head had moved. Ivory was now sitting with her arms crossed muttering something about him being a personal space invading jerk. He slowly lifted his hand to touch the skin that still stung, what had happened? Then the idea came to him, Ivory had slapped him. Sure, it was a crude reaction, and probably overkill for his offense, but she obviously had her issues with people invading her space.

Yet, while he would usually be indignant that anyone would so much as touch him, he couldn't bring himself to be upset at the girl. In fact, he almost respected her for her reaction. After all, it took guts to slap a half vampire, or even some random stranger that obviously gives you the creeps. He looked back to Ivory who was now just scowling as she averted her attention from Vincinte. This time he looked at her a little closer, noticing how long her hair was, the exact shade of green her eyes were, and the frown she had on her face. He finally decided that he found her to be quite cute, and spent the rest of the feast watching her with a small smile on his face.

Across the table and five people down, Smoky was fuming. He saw the look on Vincinte's face even though Ivory didn't, and the second he had seen a smile on the half vampire's face his right hand had burst into flame. Audrey Goyle had not found this the least bit amusing, seeing as he had accidentally singed her hair. Smoky glared at the twins, wishing he could tell Ivory that they were bad people, but he was positive that their threat would still be honored.

**Meanwhile, at the staff table…**

"Potter,"

"Yes, Severus?" Wolf replied, rolling his eyes at the childish use of his last name.

"Your daughter just slapped one of the other students." Snape replied, "The year hasn't even technically started."

"Who did she slap?" Wolf asked, looking over to confirm that his daughter looked pissed off.

"Vincinte Neri,"

"About time one of those two got slapped, they're too arrogant for their own good." Wolf said and was about to return to eating when Snape cleared his throat, "What?"

"As her father you should correct her behavior."

"Like hell I should, you're her head of house."

"You punish Kris."

"Because he's in Gryffindor, and I'm unofficial co-head of Gryffindor. Ivory's a Slytherin though, so she's your problem." Wolf explained as Snape's frown deepened, "Or does she scare you?"

"She just slapped a half vampire, and _he_ didn't do anything about it. Also, she was raised by you and Vaughn, which means she's probably a wild child and has your wife's love for sharp pointy objects." Snape argued.

"First of all, they're called knives, and Vaughn is _really _sorry about that Christmas party four years ago. However, I blame Neville for suggesting pin the tail on the donkey while ninety percent of us were drunk. As for Ivory, she takes after me more than Vaughn, so she'll probably just glare at you until you go insane or feel uncomfortable enough to leave her alone. And perhaps swear. She does that."

"That makes me _so _excited about meeting her." Snape sighed.

**Later in the Slytherin common room**

"Ms. Potter, a word?" Snape asked.

Ivory gave him a questioning look, did he really need to ask if all she was doing was playing with a quill(well, she had at least turned it into a gecko so it was somewhat interesting). She shrugged, "Sure." Reluctantly, she turned the gecko back into a quill.

Snape raised an eye brow, "You're quite good at transfiguration."

"I've always had an unusual amount of control over my accidental magic. What did you want to talk to me about?" Ivory asked.

"At the feast I saw that you struck another student." Snape answered, "Why?"

"He touched me."

"He touched you?"

"Yeah, my elbow."

"And that's all?"

"Yeah."

Snape sighed, "We in Slytherin are courteous to our fellow Slytherins, which means we do not make enemies of them, strike them, or set them on fire. Understood?"

"Let me guess, Smoky is the reason you added fire onto that."

"Yes, now tell me that you understand."

"I understand, and I'll do my best to comply. I'm sure my father has told everyone that I have issues with authority. I'll try though."

Snape stared at the girl for a moment, deciding that perhaps she was more like her father. If she was more like Vaughn, she would have been beaming during the entire conversation. "I will take that as a promise to be on good behavior."

-

(A/N: sigh, I have a feeling that I will be called lazy for not having updated in… I don't even remember the last time I updated. Oh well, I took some time to actually think about how the story will progress and how it will end. And I actually drew a comic of Ivory's slap, it was a slow day in math. As always review and wait force-at-be-knows-how-long until I post the next chapter!)


	8. Chapter 8

Ivory sighed heavily, she had trumped her own record by getting in trouble before the year even started. Her previous record had been made two years ago, at that muggle school before running away. She looked at her hands, they would never truly look clean to her again, and being touched by guys had become almost taboo in her life, the only exception being those that she knew closely. When what's-his-name had accidentally touched her last night, she had slapped him because her pocket knife had been left in her trunk. It had taken her a while to fully register everything that had happened, but when she did, she had fallen silent. Usually people's skin was warm, but that boy's was cold to the touch. It was odd, but nothing she wanted to dedicate too much time to pondering. She just wanted him and his sister to leave her the hell alone. She'd even say please if she had to.

Her day was almost too simple: charms, transfiguration, herbology and potions. The first two she had been able to do since she was five, herbology was simple enough a toddler could do it(the way Neville taught) and in potions all she had to do was pretend to listen. During lunch she opted out of sitting at the Hufflepuff table with the others, even though Smoky said he'd rather her sit with them than the Neris. She replied by saying she was going to sit alone and read up on charms. Which meant she had stolen her brother's charms book out of his bag and would return it to him at her discretion. The only time she smiled the whole day is when Wolf had scolded all the third years in the pack for taking muggle studies ("Come on, Jet got to blow up a fire extinguisher, why _wouldn't _we take muggle studies?")

After classes she took solace in the library so she wouldn't have to confront the Neris, which she had apparently smacked one of yesterday. It was better if they just didn't interact. She had sort of promised Snape she wouldn't make trouble. However, as typically happens to Potters, trouble found her as she was continuing to flip through her brother's text book.

"A third year book? I thought you were in first year." A voice said casting a shadow over the book.

Ivory looked over to him, it was the Neri she had hit the night before. Strangely enough, he didn't look at all mad. This threw Ivory off, and she got defensive, "I may be a first year, but if you doubt my abilities, I'll be glad to show you one my spells, like rictumsempra, langlock or the furnunculous curse."

He blinked, but didn't show any other form of emotion, "A tickling charm, glueing my tongue to the top of my mouth or being covered in boils? I guess we got off to a bad start, I'd like to start our whole relationship over. My name is Vincinte Neri."

_Perhaps I should have just petrified him and left… Oh well, I said I'd try to make nice._ Ivory thought and sighed, "Ivory Potter. Interesting name."

"I was born in Italy, me and my twin sister Cyrene decided to go to this school instead of one closer to home because of it's history." Vincinte's face changed slightly as if he was trying not to smile and failing.

"Good for you." Ivory said, wishing he would leave her to reading.

"You aren't terribly sociable, are you?" Vincinte asked.

"Not really, no." Ivory said, reminded once again that her best friends were dead people.

"I saw you reading at lunch and thought you might enjoy this book, feel free to give it back at your leisure." Vincinte pulled a book out of his bag and handed it to her, "I think you will find this much more interesting than a text book, which you should probably return to it's rightful owner. Goodbye."

"Thank you…" Ivory said as he walked away, then looked at the book he had placed in her hands, _Olde and Forgotten Bewitchments and Charmes_. Ivory allowed a small smile and opened the cover to read in small neat script, _property of Renato Neri, 1856._ Ivory blinked a few times, he had given her a book owned by his family, and it was old enough that it had to be a great grandfather or older.

"Looks like you have an admirer." Remus said, suddenly behind her.

"Do not," Ivory said, "He probably just wanted to make me feel better about last night and didn't know how else to do so."

"I'm with her, besides, Slytherins are much more dignified then holding childish crushes." Tom added.

"Oh, who asked you?" Remus shot back.

"I didn't hear her ask you, but you put your two knuts in." Tom argued.

"Well, I'm probably right."

"You Gryffindors are far too arrogant,"

"Not without good reason." Remus replied.

"Let's make this a little more interesting, then, shall we?" Tom said smiling, "Let's bet. If Neri likes her, you win, if he's just trying to get on her good side, you do."

"Okay, I'm in. But what do we bet with?"

Tom thought for a second, "Whoever loses must sing 'I'm a little teapot' in front of at least twenty other dead people and Ivory."

"What? How do you even know that song? Don't you hate everything muggle?" Remus asked.

"I grew up in an orphanage, I had my fair share of muggle immaturities. Now, is it a deal?" Tom asked holding out his hand to shake on it.

"Sure," Remus said shaking his hand, "It's not like I'll lose."

"We'll see Lupin."

**Tempus Praeter**

"Mind if I join you?" Wolf said during lunch on the second day of classes, and the Pack quickly made room for him between Kris and Jet. Today they were at the Gryffindor table.

"Isn't it strange for a teacher to sit at one of the house tables?" Jet asked, now a seventh year preparing to go into the auror training program(despite the fact that he was barely doing well enough in transfiguration).

"Yeah, but I have Kris, Smoky, Angel, Lyra and Eyra in my next class." Wolf said grimacing.

"Oh, so you want to see them one last time before you hate their guts." Jet said nodding.

"Pretty much." Wolf replied, "So how's everyone doing?"

There was a chorus of 'fine' that ended with Kris, who had been searching through his bag, saying, "I have no idea where my charms book ended up, I had it yesterday for charms, but…"

"Calm down princess." Ivory said coming up behind them and digging through her bag, pulling out his charms book, "I got bored and decided to read it."

Kris snatched the book back, "So you stole it? There _is_ a library here."

"I simply borrowed it without asking. And taking it from you was simply more convenient at the time. Anyway, I have a new book now." Ivory said closing her bag.

"As long as it's a library book and you didn't just steal another person's textbook." Kris muttered.

"Actually, I borrowed it from a friend last night." Ivory told them.

"Which friend?" Wolf asked, knowing it wasn't one of the Pack.

"Another Slytherin, more of acquaintances than friends. Why do want to know?" Ivory asked carefully.

"I'm just surprised that you would be sociable enough to borrow a book from someone you barely know." Wolf said teasingly.

"We've talked for a total of about three minutes, I wouldn't get your hopes up. All I really did was prove to him that I could do more advanced magic than most first years and he offered that I could borrow his book. I should probably be going." Ivory said turning to leave when she heard Rebel ask quietly.

"He?"

"What? Am I not allowed to have guy friends?" Ivory asked ruffling his hair in a friendly way, "I'm sorry, but I promised Professor Rivers that I would talk to him during lunch about transfiguration since I'm so far ahead. Later."

Rebel sighed, he could already feel Ivory slipping away from the Pack. During the Summer she had spent little time with everyone else, and when she had, there had been a distinctly pained look on her face. Whenever she had been asked if she was okay, she had given non-committal answers and would just stare off into nowhere if the wrong thing was said, even if it made no sense to anyone else. Rebel hated seeing her like this, and wanted to do everything he could to make her feel better.

**Tempus Praeter**

"It's only been three days, and you've already finished that book?" Tom complained, "Why are you so interested in reading?"

Ivory closed the book Vincinte had given her, now that she had finished it, "I like knowing how to do spells, and since these are ones outside of the regular curriculum, I thought it would be fun to memorize these spells."

"You stayed up until three in the morning last night."

"It was a Friday night, what's so wrong with that? Anyway, I should return this to him." Ivory told Tom.

"Uhh… Ivory, are you okay? You're talking to yourself." One of Ivory's dorm mates said as she was putting her homework away.

"Sorry Lydie, old habit." Ivory said awkwardly, "See you later."

Ivory took the book with her and headed to the common room, but Vincinte wasn't there. From experience she knew that she wouldn't see him at lunch. After a few seconds of hesitation, she headed to the library, but neither of the Neris were there either. Since she had finished her homework for the weekend the night before(before she had read until three in the morning), she decided to wander around until she found them. Unfortunately the only person she found was Smoky and Kris.

"Sorry Smoky, I still have to do the potions essay, I don't have time to help you with a stupid stunning charm." Kris said and started up the stairs, "Why don't you ask Bri? I bet even she could teach you, and you suck when it comes to charms."

Smoky pouted, then sighed, "So how about it, Bri?"

Ivory shrugged, "Sure, but the common rooms a bit crowded…"

"We'll practice in my dorm, girls are allowed in the boys dorms for some bizarre reason. I'll go ask Professor Flitwick for a practice target and meet you there." Smoky said and went up to the next floor to Flitwick's office.

Ivory began making her way down to the dungeons again, deciding she didn't want to know how Smoky knew girls were allowed to be in the boys dormitories. She didn't feel truly okay with the concept until she passed the Slytherin prefect on her way to Smoky's dorm and he said nothing about it. Once she was on the third level of dorms she saw Smoky's trunk(easily recognized by the fact that it had stuff bursting out of it) along with Vincinte and Cyrene on the bed with Smoky's trunk. She stared for a second before muttering, "What the hell?"

The two Italians looked over at her, Cyrene looked disinterested, and Vincinte looked almost glad to see her, "Ah, good to see you Ivory."

"What are you two doing on Smoky's bed?" Ivory asked.

"We've always done our homework on Hawthorn's bed. It's really comfortable and annoys him at the same time. Now what are you doing in my brother's dorm?" Cyrene asked in return, still looking somewhat bored.

"Smoky asked me to help him practice his stunning charms with him. Which reminds me, I have your book." Ivory pulled the book out of her bag and handed it to Vincinte who looked at her curiously.

"You finished it already?" He asked.

"I had trouble not finishing it earlier to tell the truth," Ivory said, somewhat embarrassed by the fact that she had finished it so quickly.

"You found it interesting then. Was it the subject or the author that you liked?"

"Subject," Ivory answered immediately, "I've always loved charms and hexes."

"Have you ever practiced curses?" Vincinte asked.

Ivory blinked a few times, "No, they all seem so… harmful. I prefer to keep to charms and simple hexes."

"With your aptitude in charms, I think curses would be easy for you. Perhaps I could teach you ones like conjuntivus, petrificus totalus, sponge-knee, jelly fingers, perhaps even the babbling curse. They're all rather harmless, so what do you say?" Vincinte explained, while his twin was muttering something in Italian in a whiney voice.

Ivory was at a loss, "Sure… I guess."

"Oh, and I hear that you've switched transfiguration classes? Someone told me that you were now joining the third year Slytherins." Vincinte asked.

The attention was a bit much for Ivory and she faintly blushed, "Professor Rivers noticed that I was capable of advanced transfiguration, so thankfully my schedule works if I switch to third year transfiguration and second year charms. Thankfully Professor Flitwick, Snape and Dad all agreed. I start my new schedule Monday. Umm… before Smoky gets back, I'd like to thank you again for letting me borrow that book. It was originally your great granfather's right? It said Renato Neri."

Cyrene gave a strange smile, "Renato Neri is our father, it was given to him for his fortieth anniversary."

Ivory froze, _1856_. That put him at being married at 1816, which was a hundred and ninety-seven years. How the hell is that possible? Their dad had to be over a hundred years old, but…

"Sorry Bri, Flitwick said that he'd had a lot of requests about the target, so he's going to go more in depth next class. Oh, you're talking to _them._" Smoky said as he walked into his dorm.

"Yeah, this is the friend that lent me the book." Ivory replied, "I guess I should be going then."

"I'll go with you, I had a favor I wanted to ask." Vincinte said as he threw his homework on his bed and walked out by Ivory's side.

"Smoky was glaring at you really fiercely, why doesn't he like you?" Ivory asked.

Vincinte rolled his eyes, "He's not particularly fond of our heritage."

"Because at least your dad isn't human. What is he?" Ivory asked, in a way that managed, if only barely so, to not be insulting.

"I'll let you figure that out on your own, I'm hoping to be your friend, and if you are around me and my sister enough, you'll figure it out." Vincinte said smirking, "And on that note, me and my sister have a special connection with animals that allow us to find them really easily, and we've been asked to capture a few unicorns for the third year care of magical creatures class. We've also been asked to bring another student of our choosing along in order to ensure that we captured them in a humane way."

"Wait, are you asking me?" Ivory asked, remembering how bad she was with animals(she had been attacked by pickles, six different dogs, a feral cat and the pet monkey from down the street).

"Of course I am, my sister, although she was saying cruelly rude things about you in Italian doesn't know anyone she would prefer to bring, and you're the only person in this school that has caught my interest to befriend. We're going tomorrow, so the sooner you have your answer the better, and you do need to ask our head of house if you have permission to go into the forbidden forest with us." Vincinte explained.

Ivory gave it a little thought, but when she realized that she would be spending time with a possible friend and be able to see a unicorn her mind was made up, "Okay, any idea where I would find Professor Snape?"

"He said he would be in his office correcting fifth year essays most of the day. Thank you for saying yes." Vincinte said softly.

Ivory's blush became a little more prominent, "Thanks for inviting me."

**Tempus Praeter**

"Ms. Potter, I think I will leave this decision up to your father. No go eat lunch, he'll probably give you an answer during the lunch hour." Snape said, dismissing Ivory after she made her request. She left his office with a sigh, she hated having to ask her parents permission. Besides, she would be with two not entirely humans, she would be perfectly safe. She walked up to the great hall, where Rebel, Angel and the 'Weasley' twins spent five minutes convincing her to join them at the Hufflepuff table. Finally she conceded when they promised her she could transfigure something into an animal to bite her brother.

She chose to turn the fork in his hand into a demon squirrel, which then crawled up his sleeve and bit his collar bone, then refused to come out of his shirt. When several teachers(Wolf, Ginny and Nate) came to investigate, the squirrel had been turned into a fork again. Needless to say, Kris was called crazy and Wolf turned to Ivory and said, "It's fine with me, meet them in the common room at seven p.m., you'll miss most of dinner and you probably won't get much sleep. When you get back, Snape will have a potion for you that will make up for the lost sleep. And be careful."

"I will, thank you." Ivory thanked him, and then refused to tell them what her father had consented to.

"Ivory, I was wondering," Rebel began quietly, "Would you like to play a two on two quidditch match with me tomorrow?"

Ivory frowned and ruffled his hair softly, "Sorry kid, I already promised to spend tomorrow afternoon with a friend learning some curses. Maybe next time. Oh, I should probably let him know that I can go, see you later!" Ivory said walking off, excited that she got to spend more time with Vincinte Neri.

Everyone else saw the look on Rebel's face, he was crushed. Kris put a firm hand on his shoulder, "Sorry, if it makes you feel better, I'll play with you."

Rebel was still watching Ivory disappear from the great hall, "Thanks, I feel a little better, I guess."

-

(A/N: Aww… poor Rebel. If you don't know how it feels to be snubbed by who you have a crush on(poor Rebel liking Ivory), it hurts like hell. Now for those of you wondering how on earth I managed to post so soon, it's this magical thing called a snow day. So thank the district heads of my school district and whichever force brought snow for this chapter. If you have anything to say(more than writing 'good chapter' for every chapter is preferable, but I'm not picky) please Review!)


	9. Chapter 9

Ivory rubbed her bruised side absentmindedly as she walked up to the first floor to have her first transfiguration class with the third years. Unicorn hunting had left her exhausted and included a lot of running and sitting silently for a long time before sprinting again. Of course, the mistake as old as time had been made, she had stepped unknowingly between a unicorn dam and her foal and had been charged. Vincinte had been quick enough to nudge the unicorn so she wasn't stabbed by the horn, but she had been knocked into a tree rather roughly. Cyrene had managed to catch the unicorn by hugging it's neck with one arm and whispered a phrase quietly while pointing her wand at the unicorn before pulling out a small flask and pouring it's content down the animal's throat, sedation.

Ivory blushed a little remembering how Vincinte had asked her if she was okay about twelve times. She had certainly been hurt worse, and he had insisted on using a spell to check if she was truly well enough to continue on. Other than some heavy bruising, she was fine. She was early for her class, but Professor Rivers was there anyway and smiled, "There's assigned seating, you're in the back row, fourth desk to your right."

Ivory put her bag down at the seat indicated, but leaned against the wall behind her desk rather than sit, "Who am I sitting next to?"

"Cyrene Neri is on your right, and her brother is on the other side of her. Then… I'm not sure having your brother sitting next to you is a good idea, especially with Smoky in front of him." Rivers said thinking about his seating chart, "Oh well, we'll see how it goes."

"How what goes Professor?" Kris said as he opened the door, and then watched as Professor Rivers pointed at his sister, "What the hell are you doing here?"

"Mr. Potter, language." Professor Rivers said sternly, he was a relaxed teacher that was fine with anything as long as you stayed in your seat and kept a civil tongue. Which was harder for some of his students than it was for others.

"This is my new transfiguration class, have a problem with that?" Ivory said in a polite tone, that frankly pissed her brother off.

"Yeah, I do. Who's bright idea was it for you and me to be in the same class?" Kris said bitterly as he dropped his stuff at his desk and was now standing face to face with his sister, who at this point in time was two inches shorter than him. However, her death glare made up for not being able to look down on him.

Professor Rivers cleared his throat, "It was my idea Kris, now I suggest you two learn to tolerate each other. I can't believe I'm actually saying this, but if you two are going to fight like siblings during class, I'm sure your father would be more than happy to get involved.

It was quiet for a few seconds and the two sat down, and Kris said, "That won't be necessary."

"Good, I was hoping not." Rivers said sitting at his desk to wait for the rest of his students.

A few students took their seats around the room, Smoky being one of them, and eventually the Neri twins came in. Vincinte quietly greeted her, but Cyrene decided to make a production out of it, "Oh, Ivory, how's your side. Seemed pretty painful last night, I'm surprised one of us didn't have to carry you back."

"I'm fine Cyrene, just a little sore." Ivory said, Smoky and Kris were now glaring at the twins that had apparently taken Ivory somewhere she had been injured.

"As expected of someone who got knocked on their ass by a unicorn," Cyrene said grinning.

"Neri, language." Rivers said rolling his eyes.

"Sorry Professor," Cyrene apologized, although she clearly wasn't the least bit sorry, "It was a pretty pathetic performance on your part though, wasn't it."

"Cyrene," Vincinte said curtly in a voice that would make anyone stop in their tracks, "Enough, she did fine. Besides, if you had been paying more attention, like you were supposed to, she never would have been charged. Also, I don't think it's polite to tell her brother that she was able to see and ride unicorns last night. It might make him jealous."

Nearly the whole class had arrived and was eavesdropping the second they heard unicorn, and everyone was either jealous of Ivory, surprised to see the Neri twins argue, or a mix of the two. Cyrene, while taken aback by her brother being contrary, didn't seem threatened, "Oh, sure, choose to defend your new friends rather than me. Oh well, at least she's feisty little devil, you know, with the whole slapping you thing. And for your information, I brought it up in order to make everyone jealous of her."

Vincinte sighed, "I know."

"Okay class, since you're all here, we're going to start class." Professor Rivers said, noticing that there was a troubled atmosphere today, "As I'm sure you've noticed, we have a new student, first year Slytherin Ivory Potter. She's shown capability at the third year level or higher at transfiguration, and we have arranged for her to be in this class in order to challenge her. So, as I said, we will be starting some more difficult animal transfiguration this year, and after Christmas we should be starting to transfigure animals into other animals. Last week we went over how to transfigure simple objects into animals like rodents, and then into other objects. You will be doing a chain of nine, starting with a spoon and ending with a wombat following the chart on the board. If you don't know enough about an animal, I have some reference books in the front. And absolutely no setting animals or half-animals on fellow students, teachers or other animals. I had some bad experiences with my fourth years yesterday morning, poor Annette Diggory is still in the hospital wing. On that note, begin."

**Tempus Praeter**

Kris all but stormedout of the transfiguration classroom at the end of the period, Smoky on his heels to stop his friend from doing something presumably stupid. It became obvious that Kris was heading to quidditch practice early, about three hours early to be exact. Considering the captain of the Gryffindor team still had another class before practice could even start. Smoky took a deep breath, "Are you seriously letting her get this far under your skin? All she did was a little transfiguration."

Kris turned on him, "Maybe to you, but as far as I could see, she was showing off. She finished the entire practice in five minutes and offered to help me. While you may be okay with it, there is no way in hell that I am going to accept help from some arrogant first year. Even if she's my sister. See you tomorrow."

Smoky watched as Kris ran off. Smoky had no issue with Ivory's impressive transfiguration skills, but rather in her choice of friends. First, she was getting close to the Neris, which made the fact that he couldn't say anything that much more painful. Also, she had brushed off Rebel for the second time at lunch. The two of them had been so close as kids and Rebel had developed a crush that had him extremely depressed for months after she had run away. Now that she was back he had been hoping their relationship would be the same, but she treated him like a child and brushed him off for her new friends. Hopefully she realized what she was doing before it was too late.

**Tempus Praeter**

"Sorry Vincinte, this still just feels weird." Ivory said shifting uncomfortably as she too was doing her homework on Smoky's bed. It was November and just a week ago she had conceded to do her homework with the Neris. However, she felt bad for stealing her friend's bed in order to do so.

"Oh relax, he doesn't mind, you saw for yourself yesterday, all he does is kind of glare at us and then leave." Cyrene said cheerfully. Ivory had taken time to come to enjoy Cyrene's company. Unlike her brother, she was rash and was unsympathetic to feelings in most cases. She usually did the first thing that came to mind, which was a liability, but had the brute power and skill to figure things out. Which was the only way she had been able to beat Ivory in a duel.

"Don't worry, this is just the way we choose to annoy him, and we don't even have to do anything Professor Snape would disapprove of." Vincinte smiled softly. Unlike his sister, Vincinte intelligent, more of a strategist than anything else. Because of that he was quieter and more cunning, and could more easily make friends when he chose to reach out to them. Unfortunately, this was a very rare occurrence. Together they balanced each other out. Vincinte gave her a quizzical look, "Have you ever thought of putting your hair up? You seem to spend a lot of time brushing it out of your face."

"I've tried every once in a while, but it's just to much of a hassle. Besides, I can never get it straight." Ivory said, writing her charms essay without even opening the book. Then she stiffened and stopped writing, "Vincinte… what are you doing?"

"Putting your hair up for you." Vincinte asked simply as he held his hand out to Cyrene, who sighed and handed him a white scrunchie. He quickly had Ivory's hair up, and watched as she experimentally touched it, and then gave him a funny look.

"Why do you know how to make a ponytail so well?" Ivory asked.

Vincinte gave a weak smile, "You forget that my twin is very fond of using blackmail in order to get out of doing menial tasks or simply to get on my nerves."

"Oh, well thank you." Ivory said quietly, then bit her lip before talking again, "Your hands are cold."

Vincinte was a little thrown off by the sudden statement. Sure, he had seen her notice that his skin was cold, but she had never brought it up before. Of course, the way she chose to bring it up left little room to reply, so Vincinte simply nodded.

"I've always known you weren't completely human, and you said you wanted me to figure out what you were on my own." Once again, Ivory gave no room for argument or comment, "You two are half vampire, from your dad. Right?"

Vincinte smiled, "Well, I have to say I'm impressed, you got it on your first guess. I'm curious, what led you to think that?"

"Well, vampires are one of the few creatures that have a lower body temperature than humans." Ivory began, "There's also the extremely long lifespan of your father, and I did some research. That book was given to him for his fortieth anniversary of being turned, wasn't it?"

"Yeah, but I still don't see how that would lead you to believe that were vampires. We could still be half Ice Nymph for all you know." Vincinte said curiously.

"I also saw Cyrene's fangs the other day. Ice Nymphs don't have fangs." Ivory pointed out. Vincinte turned to his sister and glared.

"What did I tell you about letting your fangs show?" Vincinte said sternly.

Cyrene pouted, "To not to."

"Very good. Now Ivory," Vincinte said turning back to Ivory, "Now unless I'm mistaken, you are going home for Christmas break. Since those leaving are doing so next week, we should at least give our presents to each other before leaving."

Ivory blushed slightly, "I haven't wrapped my presents for you guys yet, so we'll at least have to wait until tomorrow. Are we opening them right away, or waiting till Christmas."

The twins looked at each other before nodding and saying in unison, "Christmas."

Ivory sighed inwardly, that would mean she wouldn't have to see their reactions. She had tried to guess what they liked, and had snuck into Hogsmeade to shop. Somehow she had avoided being captured with a few spells to make her look older(making her hair color blonde for the day had certainly helped the charade). Cyrene's gift had been easier to find, her love for action and strange interest in wizard's chess(even though she lost every time) had led to the purchase of a chess set that actually made the pieces bleed when they were 'destroyed'. Surely she would get a kick out of it. Vincinte, although she knew him better, was much harder to shop for. She deeply hoped that she had made the right choice.

**Tempus Praeter**

While Vincinte and Cyrene weren't getting on the train, they insisted that they walk Ivory to the train, despite the strange looks they were getting from everyone around who knew that they were spending break at school. Ivory had decided, as most of the Pack had, to opt for a smaller bag so she wouldn't have to drag her trunk home and back. Truthfully, all she had were the books she needed for homework and a change of street clothes to change into on the train. Since there was quite a few people staying at Hogwarts, the Pack was going to take two compartments and turn them into changing rooms during some point to give everyone privacy. Conner, Rebel and Ivory had already been delegated to save the second compartment. Which pretty much meant that they were being kicked out of the other compartment.

Once they got close to the crowd around the train, Ivory turned to her older friends and sighed, "We should probably just say goodbye here."

"Good point, that's one hell of a crowd." Cyrene commented.

Professor Rivers was unfortunately passing by at just that moment, "Neri, Language."

"English." Cyrene snapped, earning a glare from the youngest teacher at Hogwarts, "Man that guy gets on my nerves."

"Oh, come on, he's not such a bad guy as long as you don't swear." Ivory said in his defense.

"That's just my problem, I can't not swear. It's who I am." Cyrene said hugging Ivory, "Now be a good little girl for your mum and dad, stay out of trouble, and if you pull any pranks, you must tell us about them in detail when you get back. Got it, kid?"

"Of course Cyrene, but do I really have to be on my best behavior? It's so much more fun when I'm not." Ivory said jokingly, and then looked to Vincinte as if unsure what to do. Would it be okay for her to hug him too since he was a guy?

Apparently.

Vincinte gave her a one armed, friendly hug, "Have a happy Christmas, and don't open your presents until Christmas. Other than that, I don't care how you behave as long as you come back after break in one piece. I'll miss you."

"I'll miss both of you, too. See you after break," Ivory waved as she turned and headed for the train. Now all she had to do was find the compartment with Conner and Rebel in it.

-

(A/N: I am completely aware of the short chapter, but I decided that I would rather leave the entire Christmas break to the next chapter. Partly because I haven't figured out exactly what Ivory gave Vincinte and what Cyrene gave ivory. Any suggestions will be greatly welcomed and use of those will result in your penname being in the author's note. I will warn you in the next chapter as well, but chapter ten is in REBEL'S POINT OF VIEW. Expect angst, depression, and yes, the first person point of view. I got complaints in Cub for not giving warning, and would like to avoid that, so there. As always, reviews appreciated.)


	10. Chapter 10

(A/N: Okay, we're doing this chapter from Rebel's point of view, after this chapter we will be returning to the regular point of view)

-

"Hey Rebel, I found an empty compartment," Conner said smiling at me, but he saw the look on my face and gave a reassuring smile, "Don't worry, she'll be here."

I felt uneasy, perhaps she would find some excuse to ditch me again. After all, outside of the few times she had eaten lunch with the Pack, I haven't spent anytime with her. I even considered asking her if she would help me with transfiguration, but she already knows I am doing fine academically and would tell me to practice on my own. I sighed and dropped my bag on the floor next to Conner's. He gave me a strange look, "I don't think you aren't worrying. She'll be here. Where else would she sit?"

"She'd probably find an empty compartment." I said sitting on the bench seat leaning against the wall behind me. By some miracle I was able to resist curling up with my feet on the seat to comfort myself, but I didn't want Ivory to see me like that if she showed up. As if on cue, the compartment door slid open and there was a sigh of relief.

"Hey guys, nice to see you, especially after _that _nightmare." Ivory said indicating the crowd of people in the hallway. She closed the door and set her bag down gingerly, all the while oblivious that I was watching her. Her hair was down again, and I was thankful. Every time I saw her with her hair up it reminded me that _he_ was the one that put it up. I sighed inwardly, the only good thing about her hair being up was that it wasn't in her eyes and getting her annoyed. It was always so much nicer when she was happy.

"So how have you been Ivory?" Conner asked when he realized I wasn't going to ask. At least he gave me the chance to ask.

"Not bad, I guess. Just a bit hectic with homework, and the fact that I completely fail when it comes to Defense." Ivory said, remembering just how many times she had tried the simple spells to be used against dark creatures and failed to the point where Ginny had suggested remedial lessons.

"Perhaps Rebel could help you, he's really good Defense." Conner suggested, I would have glared at him if Ivory hadn't looked at me at that exact moment.

"You're good at Defense? That class is generally one that Gryffindors excel at, probably because when the school was first put in session, Godric himself taught Defense and Transfiguration. Figures that you would be good at Defense. I'd ask for your help, but I kind of already have a tutor." Ivory said, as always knowing more information than most would about… well, just about anything.

"It's fine, I'm not really spectacular at it anyway." I said, trying to make her feel better about her own skills.

"Only the best in our year." Conner scoffed, then asked Ivory, "How do you know what Godric taught?"

"A friend lent me a book written by Ravenclaw about the construction of Hogwarts and detailed seven years after it's creation." Ivory said, obviously having enjoyed the book. "Each of them had two subjects that they excelled in above others, and that's what they taught, Godric had Defense and transfiguration, Helga had herbology and care of magical creatures, Rowena had history and charms, and Salazar had potions and this class that was especially for curses and darker spells that was just called the Snake. However, that classes was taken away once the ministry put in guidelines, since it was practically a Dark Arts class."

"You're a Slytherin, but you're best subjects are a Gryffindor and Ravenclaw class. How does that work?" I asked, doing anything to make the conversation go on, I love Ivory's voice.

Ivory smiled, which was a truly beautiful sight, "Everyone has some traits from the other houses, so while I may be best categorized as a Slytherin, I have the courage of a Gryffindor and the studious intentions of a Ravenclaw."

"Why were you put into Slytherin then?" I asked and then watched a pained look flicker across her face and then it got replaced with a fake smile.

"Slytherins are clever and ambitious." She said softly, "I ran away from home and was clever enough to stay alive, and my ambition is to prove myself to everyone."

"You don't need to prove yourself to me, I already think you're a brilliant witch." I said, not realizing I was saying the first thing that came to mind without thinking of what I was actually saying. I cast a glance at Conner who had this whole 'feeling brave, aren't we?' look on his face.

I felt her rub her hand through my hair playfully, "I know I don't have to prove myself to you, Rebel. You're like a little brother to me, even though you're older."

I looked up at her and she had this brilliant smile on her face, and it wasn't a fake smile. Even though I hated being just a little brother in her eyes, if it made her happy, that's what I would be for her. Although, in my future I always hoped that we would be something closer to boyfriend and girlfriend than a brother and sister. Until that dream comes, I will protect her.

**Tempus Praeter**

Christmas morning we got ready to leave Malfoy Manor, which I had always associated with a prison. The entire place was cold and empty, with four people living in it(grandma and grandpa died a few years ago, grandpa died first and Dad refuses to admit that grandma killed herself afterwards). I was surprised however when we were told that instead of going over to the Potters, we were going to the Burrow. I was secretly happy, the Burrow was almost as warm as the Potters, but it was easier to sneak underage magic. In fact, that's where I first saw Ivory use magic, she had been talking to air and then pointed to a dead flower in the yard and transfigured into a bird. Unfortunately it was still dead and Ivory decided to show her mom. Then Smoky saw it and decided to barbecue it… and it all went down hill from there.

Unfortunately, their ability to sneak underage magic hadn't changed.

As the my family approached the Burrow the kids seemed to be having a snowball fight out back as most of the adults either stayed inside or worked on building a giant snowman(by giant snowman, I'm estimating it to be about twenty feet tall when they're done). Angel, Conner, and Eyra walked around the front of the house, covered from head to foot in snow. Eyra was the one that was able to speak first, the other two were shivering to loudly to be able to say anything, "I think the snow ball fight has gotten out of control, they've started using magic."

"By 'they' you mean?" Wolf said asking who exactly was using magic.

"Well, it's really just Kris and Ivory, Smoky seems to be hiding." Eyra answered, looking unsure of herself.

"Ivory started a duel?" Vaughn stated, and then went to grab her coat, but Angel screamed no and everyone froze surprised that quiet little Angel would ever scream.

Angel cast her eyes down, "Kris started the fight, Ivory was just fighting back. Smoky hid because it was either hide or be caught in the crossfire. I've never seen Kris so mad…"

Learning that it was Kris initiating the fight changed everything, while Vaughn had found recently that she could call off Ivory, Wolf had always been the best one to deal with Kris. Sable followed after hesitating, Smoky had always hated getting caught in Ivory and Kris' sibling rivalry and it was best to have a family member with him when he came out of whatever hiding place he had taken refuge in. I went with a few others just to watch what was going on out of curiosity and concern. When we got out there, sure enough, the two siblings were throwing spells at each other. Without hesitating Wolf conjured a shield between the two of them, Ivory immediately dropped her wand, but Kris kept his securely in his hand. This just proved who started the fight, if you have reason enough to fight, you don't give up easily.

Wolf was not amused by Kris' antics, "Did you not learn _anything_ from dueling club? What do you do when an instructor interrupts your duel when it gets out of hand like this?"

There was hesitation on Kris' part, but he slowly set his wand down in the snow and straightened himself, as was required by the Hogwarts dueling club. He didn't even try arguing that since they weren't in the dueling club the rule technically didn't apply. Wolf was already mad at him, even Kris can figure out that tempting him was a bad idea.

Wolf seemed to relax when this happened, probably because since the attacker still hand his wand drawn it could mean having to interfere with his own magic. He sighed, "Ivory, go ahead and pick up your wand."

"Why does she get her wand and I don't?" Kris demanded.

Wolf didn't look at all threatened by Kris, "Because she didn't start the duel, even if she did provoke you. Now, why exactly did you decide that it would be better to duel than have a harmless snow ball fight?"

Now that the fight was over Kris seemed to think that his own reason was childish, but knew he wasn't going to get away without saying anything, "I started a duel because Ivory wouldn't stop showing off."

Wolf looked at Ivory who was holding snow to skin beneath a hole singed in her coat. I wanted to go heal the small burn that Kris had made, but Ivory wasn't complaining and it wasn't smart to get involved in Potter family affairs, especially when there was an argument. He looked back at Kris, "And just how do you define 'showing off' in this scenario?"

"She was…" Kris started and then searched for words, "Transfigured some of the wood from the wood pile into these weird little creatures to help her side in the snowball fight."

After Wolf looked at Ivory, she answered the question that was on his mind, "It was in retaliation for Smoky using his pyrokenesis to harden the center of the snowballs and using magic to steer the snowballs. I have the bruises to prove it. I didn't expect Kris to go off on me like that."

"He went off like that because he's a jealous git," Smoky said emerging from an almost non-existant hiding place, "He's jealous because she's better than him at transfiguration and charms. It's been pissing him off all quarter."

"Kris?" Wolf asked, he wanted him to confirm that his jealousy was the cause.

"It's not because she's better at transfiguration than me," Kris said, "It's because three years ago I was the one everyone thought would be extraordinary at magic, and now that she's at Hogwarts she has everyone's attention and is taking advanced classes. It's like she doesn't even have to try. She's a show off."

I saw Ivory kind of shirk away, _my ambition is to prove myself to everyone. _She hadn't considered that it could have come off as showing off. Before Wolf could even say anything, she softly said, "Sorry, I didn't think that it would cause such a problem. I won't use magic for the rest of break and will try not to show off at school."

Kris' jaw dropped, he obviously wasn't expecting that kind of answer, and Wolf just stared at her for a moment, "Why exactly are you backing off this easily? It's unlike you."

Ivory gave one of her small, fake smiles, "It depends on the subject. I know how it feels to be ignored, I lived through years of it. It's something I wouldn't wish upon my worst enemy." Ivory didn't wait for further conversation to continue, she began walking back to the Burrow, and thankfully didn't argue when I fell into step with her.

"Are you okay?" I asked tentatively.

"Yeah, I've learned not to care what Kris says, and I can deal with not showing off over break. I'm fine." She answered easily.

"That's good, but I was actually talking about your arm…" I trailed off as I realized she had forgotten all about her injury. Her face scrunched a bit as she looked down at her still bleeding arm before pulling up her sleeve to get a better look. She bit her lip to hide a grimace as the semi-dry blood moved with difficulty. It was quite a bit deeper than I had expected, with burnt skin around the wound suggesting some sort of incendio spell had caused the injury. They had stopped walking and Ivory slowly held her arm out to me and me, being the stupidest person in the world for about thirty seconds, just stared at it, unsure what she was requesting.

"I heard you're pretty good with healing spells, could you heal this for me?" She asked, though her under tone suggested that she didn't want her parent's help(they were notorious for screwing up healing spells, often making the injury much worse than it had been in the first place) and didn't want to insult them by going to Hermione or Molly.

"S-sure…" I said trying to still my shaking hand as I pulled out my wand. I gently held her arm and held the tip of my wand close to her perfect skin, blemished only by that ugly burn, "_Episkey,_"

She winced as the spell hit, but made no other reaction as the wound was reduced to nothing more than a slight discoloration that resembled a bruise. As Madam Pomfrey had shown me a couple months ago when I had showed skill in healing, I ran my fingers over the healed area to make sure it had actually healed and not just added a layer of skin. It was healing perfectly, but I really didn't want to let go. I doubted that she would notice if I held her arm a couple seconds longer.

Of course, Ivory had always been one to prove that whatever I thought was wrong.

"Uh, Reb, I think you can let go now." Ivory suggested giving me a rare smile as I let go abruptly, "Thanks."

She was probably expecting me to say 'you're welcome', or perhaps, 'it was no problem, any time'. Instead, the words that came out were, "Where'd you get that necklace?"

I am such an idiot when I'm talking to her.

Ivory held up her necklace, and even her eyes were smiling as a light blush crept across her cheeks. The necklace was a silver ankh that's shape was similar to a dagger, with gossamer lines that added detail, and in the center, a tear-shaped emerald. Ivory looked very happy with it, "I got it this morning as a present."

My chest tightened, but I ignored it, "From who?"

"Vincinte. It more than makes up for the crappy present Cyrene gave me, a box of fudge flies." Ivory answered pulling a face, it's well known that she hates fudge, and hates flies even more(however, she does like chocolate frogs cockroach clusters).

I smiled, I don't know if she could tell it was fake, but I hope not. She was happy, that was all that mattered. I took a deep breath and somehow made it through the day, though it seemed like it would never end. The only highlight being when she opened my present, a book that gave hints for those troubled by defense against the dark arts, and she ran her singers through my hair roughly. Then I realized she only did it because she saw me as a little brother. Everyone had been surprised four years ago when the habit developed, and even more surprised that I had never once complained. It was then that everyone(except for the only one that mattered) realized that I was in love with Ivory.

Father had told me what was meant to be was meant to be, and that first crushes almost never became spouses. Mother had sympathized with the unrequited love and told me to stay strong, and maybe, just maybe, she'll come to realize that I love her. All Lyra had done was tease him mercilessly. Jerk.

That Christmas however, I decided that I wouldn't sit and be idle. If she only saw me as a little brother, I would grow up, I would prove to her that I deserved to be seen as more. All I can hope is that it's enough to make her see me as a boyfriend.

-

(A/N: I am really sorry about the wait, I've got about a hundred things going on at once. After finals I should have a bit more time to write… however I am planning to have two other writing projects going on, one on fictionpress, and one, maybe two, here. Be looking on my profile page for a new fic, and it's going to be a bit different than my usual style. I'm very curious to know what people thought about this chapter. Also, if you want to read what all I have posted on fictionpress(not much at this point) My username is Gem Wrenrut over there. If you have the time or inclination, please review!)


	11. Chapter 11

(A/N: Damn finals…. I know, I know, no excuses. However, all pairings have been decided and some will become apparent in the near future. This chapter is dedicated to GeniusGirl, who I can never remember her real penname, and Batsky, my inspiration for Cyrene fr parts of this chapter. Beware the Ceiling Glomp! On with the story!)

"It proves nothing."

"Yes it does."

"It does not,"

"He got her jewelry."

"So?"

"A guy doesn't buy an expensive gift unless he's serious."

"I'm going to ignore what could be a blatant reference to Black," Tom said arrogantly, "Besides, who says I wouldn't?"

"Why would you do something like that?" Remus asked.

"To mess with her, get her hopes up and then crush her."

"That's just cruel."

"Hello, I'm Voldemort, most evil wizard of the century. Being evil is what I do."

"Shut the hell up, both of you." Ivory growled quietly, tired of being forced to listen to their stupid argument. Unfortunately, one of the other two people in her compartment on the train overheard.

"We weren't saying anything Ivory." Conner pointed out, but Rebel was staring out the window daydreaming, and heard nothing. He was too busy deciding how to go through with his goal.

**Tempus Praeter**

Less than twenty-four hours at Hogwarts and Ivory's teachers had already piled an inhumane amount of work on her. However, she was just looking forward to seeing the Neri twins, who had been called away to Italy a few days before for a family emergency and didn't get back to school until early that afternoon. She hadn't been sure they would want her company, but Vincinte had sent a note to ask that she come to do homework as usual. She smiled knowing he had developed an aptitude for knowing when she was unsure about something and could usually ease her anxiety. Ivory walked into the boys' dorm and was surprised to see only Vncinte, especially since Cyrene always made a point of never leaving the two of them alone(apparently she was on Remus's side of the bet). However, Ivory soon found out that Cyrene wasn't absent, just not visible at the moment.

"Hi Vincinte, where's Cy-" Ivory began, but was cut off my an apparent lack of the ability to breath properly and being very cold very suddenly. After a few moments she realized she was being hugged by Cyrene. No, not exactly hugged, more like glomped(1). Of course, Ivory had never been one to simply allow her personal space invaded and had learned a few things by having a mother who taught self-defense. Elbowing Cyrene in the gut surprised her more than hurt her, but she let go all the same.

"Cyrene, leave her alone." Vincinte said without even looking up from his work, "And you keep wondering why you have no friends."

"Why are you saying that?" Cyrene argued, throwing an arm over a twitching Ivory's shoulder, "I just miss her, that's all."

"Let go of me!" Ivory said pushing her away again, "You're scaring the hell out of me, you aren't supposed to be a hugging person. And where did you come from."

Cyrene smiled and pointed to the ceiling, "I was clinging to the ceiling like a ninja. It's fun, you should try it sometime."

Ivory backed up and then hid behind Vincinte, quietly whispering, "Save me."

Vincinte seemed distracted by something, "You're wearing it?"

Ivory looked down to see what Vincinte was looking at, and saw the ankh. She blushed, "Of course I am, I love it. It's a lot better than my present to you…"

He raised an eyebrow, then leaned over her to retrieve a book on his nightstand. It was the leatherbound book she had given him, "I love your present too, though I don't remember telling you I like Poe."

"You only mentioned it once a couple months ago…"

"Oh please," Cyrene whined, "Will you two get a room?"

"Technically, this _is_ my room. Feel free to leave." Vincinte replied, not surprised that Cyrene held her ground, "Besides, it's not like we're dating, her dad probably won't let her until she's fifteen."

"Actually, I can date when I'm thirteen."

"Why thirteen?"

"Because that's how old mum and dad were when they started dating. Anyway, how was your break?"

"Not especially great, mainly the last few days." Vincinte said, looking as if he had hoped she wouldn't ask.

"Why not?"

When Vincinte hesitated, Cyrene said, "Our mom was murdered five days ago, it's a little upsetting."

"Cyrene," Vincinte snapped, "You could have just said she died,"

"Ivory just would have asked how, and I would have had to tell her then, I was just skipping part of the conversation for us." Cyrene said crossing her arms in defiance.

"Why was she killed?" Ivory asked, and finally Vincinte realized she was holding his hand.

"She died to save others, it was either she alone die, or a whole group of people, and she decided to give up her own life." Vincinte answered solemnly, "She was always a giving person, complete opposite of dad."

"That's for sure, it was a miracle they got along, of course, he was very quiet when we were in Italy for the funeral, I was starting to think it wasn't dad at all." Cyrene said latching onto the new, happier topic.

"Yeah, I was almost relieved when he started explaining his conspiracy theories to cousin Eldin yesterday."

"Eldin, on the other hand, not so much." Cyrene added, "On to homework then?"

While Vincinte was a little more subdued than usual, Cyrene was just gleeful the whole afternoon. Ivory had kept an eye out for any more surprise hugs from Cyrene, but everytime she looked like she was about to, Vincinte would glare at her until she changed her mind. During the afternoon Vincinte had stolen glances at Ivory's necklace, surprised she was wearing it because deep down he thought that she would reject his present. He found that she seemed to use the small ankh as a worry stone.

"Strange," Cyrene said a couple minutes after Ivory left, "I thought she would have asked how I kept myself anchored to the ceiling."

"She probably doesn't care." Vincinte replied.

Cyrene smirked, "Do you want to know-"

"You used a modified gravity reversal spell." Vincinte interrupted."

"No fair, you can read my mind."

"And I heard you say the spell. It doesn't take a genius to figure it out."

"It doesn't take a genius to figure out you love her either, but you don't see me bragging that I know, do you?"

"I'm not asking you to guess either."

"Oh shut it, you're just moody because of mom's death."

"What's disturbing is the fact that you aren't."

"It's war, people die, shit happens. Learn to live with it."

"That's the problem with being evil, everyone's always out to get you and your family. However, I will not lower myself to an emotionless killer like you, even if you put a mask on for everyone else and pretend to give a shit about her death. I still know you don't."

"That's why I love being immortal, no chance of dying, those who can die are weak. Voldemort was the only mortal worth being around, he was nearly immortal and completely deranged and evil. The man was the god of sinners."

"Whatever Cyrene, just leave and take your insanity with you."

-

Glomp — A hug in the manner of a small child, similar to a bearhug but often including one or both legs as well as arms. Also, a hug in which the hugger jumps and catches the victim by surprise or off-guard. Occasionally referred to as a cross between a running tackle and a bearhug. (from wikipedia)

(A/N: I know, short chapter, but I wrote this during my classes after finishing finals and wanted to post, I think I'm going to be skipping a couple years in the timeline though. The war that Vincinte and Cyrene are talking about will come up later as the war becomes more central to the plot. As always, please review.)


	12. Chapter 12

The year had flown by, and the Pack, or at least the part that was at Hogwarts, was sprawled out under the tree by the lake basking in the early summer sun during the last week of school. Of course, no one was surprised that Ivory was not present. Outside of classes, she was rarely seen by the Pack, and Smoky occasionally saw her in the Slytherin boys' dorms studying with the twins. Others had taken time to pursue their interests, but had always returned to the Pack.

"Rebel, nice job in the match against Ravenclaw." Wolf commented, "I didn't even know you were on the team."

"I'm just a reserve chaser," Rebel replied, "I joined the team right after Christmas, and I've bee promised Robert's place on the team next year."

"I still think you should have at least told me," Ginny said sourly, she hadn't known he was on the team until the day of the match when he walked onto the field with the rest of the team. Telling her that he had told dad was no consolation.

"Funny, I knew he was on the team long before any of you," Jet smirked.

"Only because your girlfriend is the captain of the team," Smoky said doing his favorite hobby, weaving a small flame through his fingers.

"She isn't my girlfriend." Jet growled.

"Which explains why Conner and I saw the two of you snogging on the third floor yesterday on the way to detention." Smoky replied.

"Which you two wouldn't have had if you didn't decide to scare those first year hufflepuffs during my class." Ginny reminded them, the Gryffindors had tipped the two boys off that she was doing the lesson on boggarts and they had taken advantage of that, making seven kids cry, one run out of the class hysterically, and one to faint on the spot, while the final Hufflepuff just started twitching while the Slytherins laughed. There are so many great uses for fake blood.

"That's just cruel, they were just poor little Hufflepuffs." Lyra said rolling her eyes at the boys, Lyra had her hair tied up as usual, and Eyra always had her hair down. It was usually the only way to tell them apart other than their personality. Lyra was strict when it came to rules and survived on theory, while Eyra-

"Since Smoky controls fire, would he be able to be burnt by it?" Eyra asked, giving Smoky a curious look.

"The fire from my pyro-kenisys can't burn me, but no one's ever tried to burn me before. The fact I can control fire usually discourages them. If you want, you can try to burn me." Smoky said holding his arm out for her to try, which she did without hesitation. Not surprisingly, he was completely unharmed by the flame.

Kris huffed and they saw he was glaring at the Ivory and the twins who were walking at the edge of the forest. He stood, "Strange, I thought vampires burned up in the sun, or is that why you're staying in the shade."

Ivory and the twins just laughed, and Ivory called back, "I think that's by far the stupidest thing I've heard you say."

"What, so you'd rather hang out with some stupid half-human foreign creatures than us?" Kris asked. Ginny looked to Wolf for permission to stop the fight, but Wolf shook his head and whispered, "What? And miss the entertainment? I'll stop it if goes too far."

Cyrene took a step forward, but Ivory stopped her with a smirk as she drew her wand and said a quiet incantation pointing at the ground. A plant quickly grew out of the ground, and bloomed into a beautiful geranium. Kris gave his sister a skeptical look, "Am I supposed to be afraid of a girly flower?" Ivory just continued smiling.

"Kris?" Neville said, "This might be a bad time, but that's actually a fanged geranium."

"Wha- ow!" Kris said as the geranium latched on his leg, then began trying to shake it off while trying not to curse.

"See? I told you this would be entertaining." Wolf said quietly, Smoky rolled his eyes and burned the offending flower.

Kris was frowning as he thought of his next spell, then smiled, "_Avis_."

A flock of small birds started flying at Ivory, who with a wave of her wand turned them into snakes. She then smirked wider and then hissed, and all the snakes starting heading towards her brother. Only Wolf had heard her say 'just scare them,' but they all realized that she was a parselmouth.

"_Petrificus Totalus,_" Kris said, and the snake's stopped moving, "_Impedimenta,_"

Ivory was almost frightening with how calmly she fought, whispering incantations. She through up a shield, and brought it down quick enough to hit her brother with two spells, and then put her wand back in her pocket with a superior. Kris was frowning, "She hit me with jelly-fingers and sponge-knees."

In other words, he couldn't stand or grip his wand that had fallen to the ground when the spell hit him.

Ivory walked up to them, the Neri twins walking through the sun behind her without any problems, and she looked down on her brother, "I know I said I wouldn't be a show off, but I don't deal well with people insulting my friends."

As Ivory took the spells off her brother, Wolf asked, "So long have you known you were a parselmouth?"

"About three months, but with the reaction you got when people found out, I thought it would be better to keep it a secret." Ivory answered easily, "I'll see you guys on the train."

The three walked away and Ginny gave Wolf a funny look, "I expected the advanced transfiguration, but a fifth year herbology spell and fourth year dueling techniques? Where is she learning this stuff?"

"Those half-blood freaks she's always hanging out with," Kris answered, "I think they're half vampire or something."

"Don't call them half-bloods or freaks," Wolf said, "Last time you said that your sister powned you in dueling. I thought you would have remembered since it was about five seconds ago. Besides what proof do you have that they're vampires."

"They didn't deny it when he called them out on it," Smoky said quietly, "And they kind of bragged about it first year."

"Is that why you don't like them?" Kris asked, he just hated them because they hung out with his sister.

"No," Smoky said looking away.

**Tempus Praeter**

The ride back to London on the train was a lot more comfortable then the one to school was, Ivory, Vincinte and Cyrene were sharing a compartment again, but they were all talking this time. Ivory leaned against Vincinte while Cyrene sat across them, and they all laughed and joked. Vincinte promised to send letters via his messenger hawk over the summer.

"So since your dad is a vampire, does he pick you up at the station, or how do you guys get home?" Ivory asked as they got close to King's Cross.

Cyrene smiled, "Promise not to tell, technically it's illegal."

"We apparate, but we can't side-along apparate legally in Italy until we're fifteen. And since we're Italian we follow their law." Vincinte explained.

"The law in other countries is more of a guideline that we crumple up and burn." Cyrene added cheerfully.

Ivory knew it was true, it also applied for school rules. The three had pulled a couple of pranks in the last month, and thanks to the twins, hadn't been caught. Professor Rivers would never figure out who used a sticking charm to stick his desk to the ceiling while making sure that nothing fell. No one was willing to take credit because they had been notified they would be awarded detention until the end of the year and fifty points to their house for the skill it took to do so. It just wasn't worth it.

As the train pulled into the station, Ivory hugged the twins goodbye(truthfully, she hugged Vincinte and was glomped by Cyrene against her will). She would miss them that Summer because they had become such a large part of her life, but the promise of letters made her feel at ease. She rubbed her ankh as she got off the train and went to find her family, not a particularly hard task since the entire Pack gathered at a corner of the station to greet the kids.

-

(A/N**: The next three years go rather slowly, let me summarize this:** Rebel continues to play quidditch, third year Vincinte asks Ivory out and she accepts, Kris is generally angry at his sister, Jet is training to become an auror, and fourth year people are starting to look at each other as more than friends. Yep, that's three whole years, fourth year will be starting at the beginning of the next chapter after the results of Remus and Voldie's bet. Be afraid. Review to tell me anything, although, reviews about Sarah Palin quotes kind of freak me out. Seriously, I got one. Review anyway, I read all reviews and usually find them entertaining!)


	13. Chapter 13

**Halloween, Ivory's third year**

"I don't recall any of this being part of the bet," Tom huffed.

Remus gave a wry smile, "You forget we made a formal contract which we both signed that detailed the bet more thoroughly. And this _is_ your signature."

"Bastard,"

"Hey, I wasn't a Marauder without reason," Remus said, "I will be back momentarily with the witnesses for this."

Tom frowned as Remus apparated away leaving him standing uncomfortably in the fifth year Slytherin boys' dorm. He looked over the contract again just to make sure Remus wasn't making this up. _'the one who loses is bound by this contract to sing "I'm a little teapot" with at least twenty dead witnesses and Ivory. Furthermore, while performing, he must be wearing all pink, a sombrero, an eye patch over his left eye, and muggle make-up. Failure to comply leaves the loser at the will of Ivory to decide on something even more strange and inexplicable for him to do with an audience with twice as many dead witnesses.'_ Tom once again wondered how he could miss such a major part of the contract. He resigned himself to the task ahead, knowing that with the help of her boyfriend(damn him), she would come up with something far more humiliating for him to do.

With a sudden pop that only Ivory could hear, a large group of people appeared, and at Remus' request, she started counting off people to make sure there was at least twenty, "Okay, we have two marauders, Lily, Bella, Albus, Viktor, Peter, Umbridge, Quirrell, Regulus, the four founders, Grindelwald, Ms. Norris as long as dead animals count, the Crouches, Goyle Sr., Dolohov, Avery, Rodolphus, Macnair and Nott(_received the dementor's kiss shortly after the war)_. That's twenty-four by my count. Let the show begin."

Vincinte watched Ivory in amusement as she laughed at the former dark lord, now reduced to singing children's songs. Last year he had caught her seemingly talking to herself, and she had eventually come clean that she could talk to dead people. She had also mentioned something about them being incredibly annoying. It had taken time to get used to, but Vincinte and Cyrene had grown accustomed to being entertained by the arguments she had with the dead men.

**September, Ivory's fourth year**

"Vince, That's kind of illegal," Ivory said rolling her eyes when her boyfriend suggested that he teach her to apparate this year. After all she had learned almost every curse there was, and the only exceptions were the unforgivables, and the darker curses, though she had eventually allowed him to teach her a few dark spells.

"I never claimed it was," Vincinte said smiling, allowing his fangs to show slightly. He had only recently allowed anyone to call him Vince, and it was only because it was Ivory that he had allowed it. Which meant he was now constantly mad at his sister for making fun of him for 'showing the weakest emotion of them all, love', as she put it.

"Oh right, I almost forgot. Thanks, Remus," Ivory said quickly before turning to Vincinte, "Do you know anything about the vampire attack in Hogsmeade the other day?"

"No, what happened?" Vincinte replied, silently cursing his twin, she knew they were the only vampires in a fifty mile radius, with their blood status any vampire would have to tell them otherwise or chance death. It was only a threat because those with strong bloodlines could subject the souls of vampires to another dimension, whether they actually died was unknown.

"Carmine, the daughter of the owners of Honeydukes was found sucked dry of blood. She was only seven. She had teeth marks on her neck and scratches from being held down." Ivory answered looking up from her homework for an explanation.

Vincinte tried to hide that he was pissed, knowing that Cyrene had been messy on purpose to make it look like she had nothing to do with the death. He sighed, "It sounds like a newborn vampire, they aren't aware of their strength so usually go for killing children. They also don't know the law that they aren't to feed of humans for the first year and aren't to kill or change those under seventeen years of age. No self control either, if they had any there would only be about half of her blood missing."

Ivory had relaxed a bit, "At least it wasn't you or Cyre(pronounced Siri, and Cyrene absolutely hates the nickname). I can't imagine you as killers. Well, maybe Cyre."

**Tempus Praeter**

"For Tyr's sake, Cyrene, can't you control yourself?" Vincinte snapped at his sister later that night.

"Who the hell is Tyr?" She shot back.

"Scandinavian god of battle, now what were you thinking?"

"That I was bored and might as well stir something up. If we're going to be evil, why pretend to be good?"

"Maybe because there's more to life than ruling the world with an iron fist."

"Oh, like true love? Come on, at least my boyfriend is one of our kind."

"Cepheus was banned to Madagascar last year, he's a monster who kills for fun. I'm all for taking over the world, but I have my boundaries."

Cyrene scoffed, "You call them boundaries, I call them limitations. You choose to follow that little goody-two-shoes, and I'll kill you myself."

"You know it won't work on me, we're both immune." Vincinte reminded her, "Unless you want the European Magic Alliance and every vampire this side of the Himalayas on to us, I'd watch your step."

Cyrene just rolled her eyes and left without another word.

**November**

"You look a little tired Bel, you okay?"

"You call me Bel one more time and I swear you'll be walking around with a fish bowl for a head," Rebel responded sourly to Kris's taunts, while propping his head on his hand at the breakfast table.

"Oh, did poor Bel not get enough sleep because of the Gryffindor victory party starring our favorite Malfoy?" Conner joined in.

"Oh, and what am I, chopped liver?" Lyra huffed as she sat down next to him.

Conner smirked, "Oh no, my fair lady, I would compare you to baker's chocolate, bitter but I bet you're sweet. Besides, I can already see you with the last name Weasley."

"Touch me and I'll make sure you're in the infirmary through Christmas." Lyra warned, knowing well that he liked her, "Besides, we're cousins."

"So were Lucius and Narcissa, and it's tolerated in pureblood families,"

"I'm still not going to date you,"

"Oh, we'll see."

Meanwhile, Kris had been grilling Rebel, "Do you have a headache just from staying up late, or something else?"

"What the hell are you talking about Potter?" Rebel snapped.

"I know there was firewhiskey at the party, did you have any?"

"…No."

"You liar,"

"I'm not lying,"

"It's a dirty habit you know, I'm sure Ginny would be glad to straighten you out, or perhaps your father,"

"Then I'll tell your parents that you're the one that smuggled it into the castle in the first place."

"Ooh, blackmail. You are learning."

At the same time, Angel was talking to Smoky and his girlfriend Eyra, "And we were told we could transfigure our slugs into anything we wanted, so I made a little garden with a rainbow, and a little puppy, a Scottish terrier, it was so cute, and I made a cat the looked like all the pictures of Ms. Norris and had the puppy chase it around my desk. Don't you just love puppies? I do!"

Wolf and Ginny took this moment, while the Great Hall was nearly empty, to talk to them about Christmas plans. Wolf looked at the relieved expressions on their faces when they interrupted, "What kind of hell was breaking loose over here?"

"He was trying to kiss me!" Lyra said, now pushing a blushing Conner as far away from her as she could.

"She kept telling us about… puppies and rainbows." Smoky complained, both he and Eyra could be seen twitching.

In sync, Kris and Rebel did the following: pointed to the other, said 'he', suddenly realized the blackmail opportunity, dropped their accusing fingers, and said 'nothing' while looking anywhere but at their parents.

Ginny rolled her eyes, "Yeah boys, not suspicious at all. I have a feeling one of you will spill within a week. However, we came to talk about Christmas plans. We're having Christmas at the manor, so feel free to invite any significant other, just tell us who."

"I'm bringing Eyra," Smoky said, and everyone rolled their eyes.

"I'm bringing Aiden Kendall," Angel said, talking of her boyfriend that reminded everyone of a lovesick puppy on drugs, he was stupid, energetic, annoying and enjoyed having his head rubbed.

"I'm bringing Hazel Yates," Kris said.

"Isn't that the creepy little stalker who asked to be your girlfriend at the beginning of first year?" Smoky asked.

"Yeah, but she's pretty nice once you get over the whole stalker thing."

"I'm bringing Lyra," Conner said grinning.

"He most certainly is not." She shot back at him.

"Okay, we get it, both of you are coming, if you're going to fight, wait until we leave," Ginny said as Conner opened his mouth to argue.

"Well, I must say you have wonderful parenting techniques, the whole 'leave them to sort it out themselves' method." Ivory said joining the group.

"What's a slimy snake like you doing here?" Kris pouted, ignoring how Rebel was tempted to rat him out on the spot.

"Obviously you've never touched a snake, they aren't slimy at all," Ivory pointed out, mildly amused, "Actually, I heard you talking about Christmas and was going to ask dad if I could-"

"You aren't going to Italy for Christmas. That's final." Wolf said sternly. It was a point that he knew Vaughn wholeheartedly agreed with.

Ivory just laughed, "I knew you were going to say that, which means Cyrene owes me five galleons now. If you had let me finish, you would know that I was asking if Vince could spend Christmas with us."

Wolf looked a bit concerned, "All break? Doesn't he want to see his family too?"

"He was thinking more like Christmas Eve to Boxing Day. Just about anything to avoid his sister's crazy ex. He doesn't seem to understand that she broke up with him and has apparently said he's coming to Christmas and she doesn't know how to stop him short of killing him." Ivory explained.

"I wouldn't put murder past her." Smoky said quietly.

"Neither would I, so can Vince come?" Ivory asked.

Wolf shrugged, "I don't see why not."

-

(A/N: Please review to me about the pairings, even though one pairing isn't too clear. I will have a KrisxAngel pairing, in honor of the magician Criss Angel. I want your input, especially since I want to have a few more chapters posted by April, because I will be surrendering my free time to being stage crew for my school play. Reviews help me write, so Review! ; ) )


	14. Chapter 14

(**Warning:** I tried using some Italian in here, though I probably failed miserably. If you are offended by my lack of ability with the Italian language, I apologize, I only really know English, Spanish, and trace amounts of Japanese. On with the story!)

**December 14, 2006 **

"Why are we all in one compartment again?" Lyra asked, carelessly throwing the small ball to one of the boys.

Conner caught it, "Moral support for our pack brother, love." Lyra fumed at the stupid rules. To make having far too many people in one compartment more 'fun' as the boys called it, you were only allowed to talk if you had the small ball, and you had to say something before passing it on to the next person.

Kris caught the ball before it hit Angel's head, "And since my parents went temporarily insane and are letting Vincinte stay in my house over break, and Cyrene's going home over break, we wouldn't make anyone share a compartment with them."

Eyra was practically hit in the face with the ball, "How are you holding up, Rebel?"

Not even looking up from his book, Rebel caught the ball, "Pass," Of course, Conner threw it back to him giving him a glare that he knew he couldn't refuse. He rolled his eyes, "If you're expecting me to break down and cry, I wouldn't get your hopes up. There's no point in me worrying myself over whether or not who'll come to her senses. I don't care anymore."

"So you're going to pretend you never cared about her? That's a bit overboard," Lyra said, catching the ball before it fell into Angel's hands, then throwing it to her brother.

"This is shit, I'm going to go sit with the Nook and Breevis."

"Aren't they on the Slytherin Quidditch team?" Smoky asked, recognizing the names.

"It's better then being grilled about Ivory. See you in London."

**Tempus Praeter**

Rebel had still refused to talk once meeting up with them when they got off the train, and the Malfoys had already left. However, Sable, Ferret, Wolf, Vaughn, Smoky, Kris and his girlfriend were still waiting for Ivory and Vincinte to get off the train. They were starting to worry when further down the platform they heard yelling in a foreign language, it was Cyrene and Vincinte. Ivory was standing between them looking like she was trying not to laugh, and was edging closer and closer to failing. This was probably because her boyfriend had insisted that she learn to speak Italian after realizing that she had learned just about any spell she would ever need.

Cyrene was the only one that seemed irate, her brother appeared to be dealing with her rage as if somewhat bored. Cyrene was scowling, "Figlio di puttana,"

Vincinte was not impressed by this, "Yeah, well she was your mother too."

"Che cazzo," Cyrene said turning around.

"Yeah, like you have anywhere to talk," Vincinte replied to his sister's back.

"Ciao," Cyrene said leaving the platform. Not two seconds later, both Vince and Ivory burst out laughing. Well, Ivory was laughing, Vincinte had more of a sinister chuckle. Kris, and Smoky thought that the laugh was fitting of a killer, even though they had no proof he was.

As Vincinte and Ivory approached the group, Vincinte gave a sympathetic smile, "I'm sorry you had to over hear that. My sister is just jealous because she's spending the holidays alone. Her boyfriend was killed in the war back home less than twenty-four hours after arriving in Italy."

Vaughn gave him a look, "And you don't care that you're your sister's boyfriend is dead?"

Vincinte let out a louder laugh, "I'm not sorry at all, he was a criminal. If he hadn't died then I would have killed him a year or two down the road for my sister's sake."

"Well, good to know you're very protective," Vaughn said, giving him a slight smile.

"You must be Mrs. Potter, your daughter talks very well of you." Vince said holding out his hand as Vaughn gave her daughter a weary look.

Vaughn shook his hand, "Nice to meet you too, Vincinte. Though I do have a hard time believing my daughter had a nice word to say about me."

"You would be surprised," Vincinte smiled and moved to Wolf, "Of course, I already know Professor Potter, the renowned Muggle Studies teacher and the Orphan-Who-deafeated-Voldemort,"

"Please, no hyphens, just call me Wolf," Wolf said shaking his hand.

Vincinte moved on to the next man, "You must be Ivory's grandpa Sable, though obviously not her biological grandfather. A cop if memory serves."

"And it does, but I don't like being called grandpa. I'm only thirty-seven for pete's sake" Sable replied, looking a little unsure of the half vampire despite the fact that his cubs had easily accepted him.

"Last but not least, the lovely Ferret I presume." Vincinte said inclining his head slightly in recognition that though her husband was oldest, he knew she was the one in charge.

"Nice to meet you as well," Ferret replied, "I think it's time to get to the cars and get home,"

The group of kids followed the women out to the car as Sable held wolf back with him with a simple look. The younger man gave him an appraising look, and once the others were out of earshot asked, "How can I help you?"

"Are you sure about the boy?" Sable asked tentatively, "I know I haven't been the most open-minded person my whole life, but he seems a bit suspicious to me."

Wolf smirked, "It's your job to be suspicious of everyone, Sable, you're a cop. I've been watching him the last five years and Ginny's been teaching him. You think I would let him in my house if I didn't trust him?"

"What if he isn't as harmless as he appears?" Sable reasoned, "I don't want my granddaughter hurt."

"I thought you didn't like being called grandpa?" Wolf teased, "Besides, my daughter lived on her own for over a year and is extremely gifted magic wise. You doubt that she can take care of herself?"

"I know she's stronger, _Cub, _but she isn't invincible. She trusts him and loved him, if he hurts her, I'll…"

"Get the remains when I'm finished with him." Wolf finished for him, "No matter what he won't survive it. So relax."

**December 23, 2006**

Wolf walked past his daughter's room again, in the past nine days it had become a habit. Kris sometimes joined him. He felt comforted knowing that his daughter had to have her door open when she was in the same room as her boyfriend. Although, usually what they were harmless activities, such as homework, having discussions on Shakespeare, or having playful arguments on just about anything, they did venture to do stranger things. These included Vincinte braiding Ivory's hair, playing muggle board games, Ivory braiding Vincinte's hair and today he was drawn to peeking in her room by hearing a familiar muggle chant he had never imagined coming from his daughter's room…

_Say, say, oh playmate,_

_Come out and play with me _

_And bring your dollies three _

_Climb up my apple tree  _

_Shout down my rain barrel _

_Slide down my cellar door _

_And we'll be jolly friends _

_Forever more more more more more  _

_Say, say, oh playmate _

_I cannot play with you _

_My dolly's got the flu _

_Boo hoo hoo hoo hoo hoo  _

_Ain't got no rain barrel _

_Ain't got no cellar door _

_But we'll be jolly friends _

_Forever more more more more more_

The two continued playing the simple game similar to Mary Mack over and over until they became flustered and screwed up bad enough that Ivory accidentally hit her boyfriend in the head. This of course turned into an argument that soon dissolved into laughter before either appeared to notice him.

"Hi dad, need something?" Ivory asked, her hair still in a braid. It had been in a ponytail or braid since the two had started dating. Apparently Vincinte put her hair up every morning as part of some deal they had.

Wolf shook his head, "Other than wanting to know why you choose to act like a nine year-old now, when back then you were acting closer to your current age, nothing,"

Ivory smiled, "Come on, that's a simple answer. Just to piss you off."

**December 25, 2006**

"Rey, get your little Gryffindor butt downstairs, the Potters and Weasleys should be here any minute." Draco said more or less barging in on his son, having found out quickly that 1) he didn't like being called Bel, 2) he didn't act adversely to being Rey, and 3) when thrown just right, pillows could leave pretty nasty bruises.

"Joys," Rebel said, not eve pretending to be enthusiastic, and not moving from his place on his bed staring out the window.

"Come on, you've been in a slump all break, what's wrong?" Draco asked, realizing he might as well try to make Rebel feel better about whatever was bothering him.

Rebel gave him a bland look, as if considering whether he should actually answer, "She's bringing Vincinte."

Draco sighed, he had been dreading this particular talk, "Just because she's the first girl you fell in love with doesn't mean the world's going to turn into a black hole if she falls for someone else. Your mother isn't the first girl I fell for, and I wasn't her first."

Rebel's eyes suddenly lost some of their emptiness in return for curiosity, "Well, I haven't heard about this until now. Why not?"

"That's because it's kind of personal to a lot of people, and generally not something any of the parties involved are particularly proud of," Draco explained, "Ginny fell for this famous quidditch player from Durmstang while it still existed, but he was just messing with her while his fiancé planned their wedding. Your uncles, minus Ron since he was on a mission for the war at the time, killed him. As for me, I fell for Vaughn. I never had a chance, she'd known Harry for years and I have never dealt well with muggleborns. I've been friends with her and your aunt Hermione for years, but after the way I was raised, I'd never be able to look upon them as equals."

"So, you expect me to just forget about her? I don't see that happening." Rebel said shrugging.

"Not forget, just learn to live. Don't dwell on it forever. Someday you'll find someone, whether it's Ivory after she breaks up with Vincinte, of another girl you haven't noticed yet because you're too busy obsessing over Ivory. Just live for a while." Draco said, "Now let's get going before they send a search party."

-

The Christmas party was almost painful for poor little Rebel. Unlike past years, Ivory didn't even pay enough attention to him to call him a cute little brother, even though he had only been two inches shorter than her last year, and was now nearly an inch taller and growing. She had skimmed over her presents, showing mild interest in each while trying to coax her boyfriend into letting her open the one from him. Right after opening the new book from her favorite muggle author that Rebel had given her, she was finally handed the small envelope from her boyfriend. She read over the sort note with eyes wide in shock before trying to articulate a question, "Is this… am I… are you sure… my parents?"

Vincinte smiled, "Don't worry, I asked for their permission."

Soon Ivory was latched to her boyfriend's neck, "I'm going to Italy this Summer!"

"I've been planning this for months, which is why I taught you Italian."

"Grazie, amore mio,"

"Figurati,"

Most of those that had come, which was just about everyone who fit the loose term of family, thought that this was adorable. Both Ivory's cute little accent, which was said t be a lot less abrasive than Cyrene's(No surprise there), and Vincinte's low accent were though to be just adorable. Rebel, however, felt like he was going to puke. As Vincinte started explaining the trip to Ivory in Italian, making every girl in the room swoon(stupid Italian git), Rebel slipped out of the room, running into Smoky.

Smoky looked off past Rebel, "He's stolen everyone's attention,"

Rebel nodded at the simple statement, "You hate him too?"

"Yeah,"

"You know my reason, what's yours?"

"I wish I could tell you."

--

Translations: Figlio di puttana – son of a whore, che cazzo – equivalent of 'you're a dickhead' I believe. 'Grazie, amore mio' – thanks, my love 'Figurati' – you're welcome. Hopefully these are the right translations.

(A/N: Well, as you can guess Italy will be… interesting. Be prepared to meet, in the next chapter or the one after, Cyrene and Vincinte's vampire father, the rest of the vampires and the werewolves of Italy and… well, I wouldn't want to spoil the surprise, now, would I? Please review.)


	15. Chapter 15

(A/N: Just giving you guys some assurance, there will be very little Italian in the rest of the story, I was just having a little fun with the idea in the last chapter. I decided it's far too much work to use too much Italian. I swear, only one word in Italian in this entire chapter. This summer will be at least three chapters.

Beware: Vampires and a lot of them, also, some enlightening about the plans of our resident Vampire, Vincinte, and Cyrene being… moral? And we didn't think that was possible…)

Ivory had buried herself in learning Italian since the Holidays, but was still unsure of herself. Cyrene was less than encouraging; when she was practicing Italian with Vincinte(on Smoky's bed, of course) she would give colorful comments in English or insult her in Italian that was far past what she was learning. Her favorite ones seemed to be making fun of Ivory's voice, 'you're to soft on the syllables', 'no, that's too guttural, it's not Russian'. Grammar wise she was always the worse, like today's comment, "That made absolutely no sense, did you translate that into French, then into Japanese, then Ukranian, before finally translating it into Italian? What the hell's wrong with you?"

Ivory scowled, "You try learning a new language in less than a year."

"I am," She said holding up her book with a smirk, "Dutch,"

"Oh, shut it." Ivory said looking away, "So will you even tell me anything about your dad?"

Vincinte smiled, "It's only a month before you meet him, I think you can wait a little longer."

"Come on Vince," Ivory pouted, and watched as her boyfriend sighed as he gave in. Cyrene rolled her eyes and walked out of the room, tiring of how her brother had fallen for the girl.

"Okay, but just a couple things," Vincinte said, "He's name's Renato Neri, though if he likes you he might let you call him Nate. He was turned into a Vampire in 1816, when he was thirty-nine. As for his personality; you'll be surprised."

Something seemed to click in Ivory's memory, "So first year when you said the book was given to him for his fortieth anniversary, it was of being a vampire, not marriage."

Vincinte smiled, "Nice memory,"

"Yeah, I get it from my dad."

**Tempus Praeter**

Vincinte gave a small smile when he had to remind Ivory at the station in London that she wasn't going home with her family. She waved a goodbye to them and stayed by her boyfriend's side as they walked out of the station. In order to keep their apparation a secret, Ivory had told her parents that their dad was picking them up that evening. They didn't see them disappear into an alley before Cyrene apparated away and Vincinte held out his hand to her. She held his hand tightly and felt the all too familiar pull of apparation. She was used to it after years of her parents disliking traveling via floo.

"Welcome to Florence," Vincinte said, "Well, the magical part at least."

From pictures of Muggle Florence, it was obvious that the two were built similarly. The entire city built on water with bridges connected the stone roads and buildings all over town. The only difference was the more abundant foliage, most likely because this part of town was populated by light sensitive vampires. Cyrene and Vincinte had both stood to their full height as soon as they arrived, each taking a place on either side of Cyrene. Over they years, the purposeful shabby looks had been abandoned, and now they actually looked like quite the handsome pair with their faces like porcelain and their hair(Vincinte's still reached his shoulders) shone in the sun. As they passed other vampires she could see they gave a slight bow to the two, but kept their distance.

"It's because we're practically royalty here," Vincinte explained quietly, "As the royal family, more or less, we are required to act as such. Which is the only reason that I'd ever bring you into a place like this. They know better than to so much as think of doing something bad to you. If they do, they'll be killed."

"Lovely," Ivory said anxiously glancing at just how many vampires were around. She had thought they all looked quite friendly, but now she was concerned whether or not it was an act so they weren't killed by the 'practically royalty'.

"Ah, home sweet home," Cyrene said in a low voice as the three walked up to the largest house Ivory had seen so far. A three story house that was an elegant white with it's back to what appeared to be a small lake. Cyrene continued to smirk as Vincinte had to gently keep a hand n her shoulder to keep her moving. Soon enough they were through the gates and in the blink of an eye, they had entered a huge entry way.

"I thought I told you two to apparate to right outside the gate. Making a mortal girl walk that far when it was needless, it's just shameful. If I was your father you never would have given consideration to doing that." A short motherly vampire who was darker skinned than most scolded the two in a way that reminded Ivory distinctly of Grandma Weasley. She turned kind eyes on Ivory that were somewhat overshadowed by her fangs, "Hello dear, I'm sorry about those two. My name's Enrica, and if you need anything, just tell me."

Vincinte saw Ivory struggle to form words, "Which means she'll probably just yell at me to do whatever it is. Aunt Enrica is our father's older sister, well, sort of. Since our mother's death she has more or less run the house."

"Nice to meet you," Ivory said with a nod, Enrica and Renato had been turned by the same vampire.

"The pleasure's mine. Let me introduce my daughters; Come here girls!" The woman called as Cyrene said that the woman wasn't particularly fond of men, which is why she only turned girls. Three dark haired girls slinked into the room, one was tall with a bored look on her face, another had a smirk on her face, and the third was tiny and almost dancing as she came in the room. With a sharp glare from their 'mother' they introduced themselves.

"Alisa, first of us turned," The bored girl said, with no expression on her face.

"Marisa," The smirking girl said, now bearing her fangs in a way that made Vincinte growl at her.

"Aria," The third said in a really high voice, one that made Ivory doubt that the girl was over seventeen. Had the woman gone against the law and turned the girl anyway?

"Aria was only fourteen, but she had special circumstances. She would have died if she hadn't been." Vincinte answered quietly.

Marisa scoffed, "She would have been turned on her seventeenth birthday anyway. Mother had her eye on Aria for the longest time. Picked her out when she entered AcMag."

"I believe your Uncle was sending you on an errand, perhaps now would be a good time," Enrica said to her middle child, who just rolled her eyes.

"Come on Alisa, maybe we'll run into trouble," Marisa said grabbing her older sister's hand. The bored expression softened slightly as they gracefully left the house.

Enrica turned her critical eye back on Vincinte, "Well, what are you waiting for? Show the girl around, she won't meet everyone by standing in the entrance hall."

"Since everyone has to leave through here, she technically could," Vincinte argued, but led Ivory up to the second floor. Cyrene had run off, Vincinte said that she often snuck away when she got bored.

Ivory was left confused after meeting what Vincinte said was all the vampires she would usually run into. This included Renato and Enrica's 'siblings': Sansone, the blonde vampire with no sense of humor; Marco, who had to leave in a hurry to feed and kept trying to avert his eyes from Ivory; Guido, a rugged man who was younger and more cheerful than the rest of his siblings; Ercole; who didn't even say a word when introduced; Carin, a kind woman who spoke in a low voice; and Ottavia, who hid in the shadows. She also had heard about fifteen other names, but couldn't put them with a face to save her life: Quorra, Rosetta, Chiara, Mia, Luisa, Viviana, Dante, Ilario, Ehno, Rocco, Taddeo, Ugo, the names just went on.

Vincinte had her climb to the third floor, "Just one more to meet, he should be in his office up here." He led her down one of the maze-like halls and knocked on a door. There was a quiet call that Vincinte heard, but Ivory couldn't make out the words. He opened the door and led Ivory in to see…

A man wearing a pink shirt.

Seriously, the first thing Ivory saw was the pink shirt followed shortly by the jeans and bright green flip-flops. The other vampires had stuck to wearing dark colors, venturing to red but never such a bright color. And they always looked very professional, slacks, dress shoes, one had even been wearing a tie. He was wearing a pink shirt.

She didn't notice she was staring until the two men started laughing at her reaction, and she quickly apologized. The older man, who definitely shared a resemblance with his son, shook his head, "I'm not what most would suspect. It's kind of the point. Someone sees a person wearing all dark clothes in the middle of the day in Italy, it looks suspicious. By wearing this, I make mortals feel more at ease around me."

"If you say so," Ivory said, noticing that he was holding out his hand for her to shake, and she took it, relaxing into his strange aura.

"Nice to meet you young one. My son has told me so much about you." Renato said smiling, "I hope you come to feel comfortable here this summer. I'm sorry, I have to leave. There is a possibility of a battle tomorrow and I need to ensure we're ready for it. Especially since Vince won't be helping us. So long."

Ivory watched as Renato left the room, still a bit confused by the man's apparel, but now intrigued by the word 'battle.' She looked to Vince, who just sighed and led her down the hall to a bed room where they sat on the bed as Ivory waited for her explanation, which Vince seemed hesitant to give. He took a deep breath, "Well, this is your room for the summer, excuse the 'A' on the outside of the door. In Italian 'ivory' is 'avorio', and we usually put initials on doors to help people find their guest room. My room is at the end of the hall on the left, Cyrene's is on the right. So if you have any questions-"

"What's with the war you didn't tell me about?" Ivory cut in, giving him a look that he knew meant she wasn't going to let it go until she got an answer.

He hesitated, "In Italy, Florence mainly since Rome was declared neutral territory in 1887 magic-wise, Vampires have always had the largest magical influence. Followed closely by werewolves, veela, the rare half human half creatures, and a relatively low percentage of wizards. For a few hundred years Vampires have ruled the area in a manner that no other creature has had issues with. In the last decade or so, the werewolves have been rebelling though and it has erupted into a war for power. We're being forced to fight for our well-being and for the secrecy of the magical community."

"The werewolves… are evil?" Ivory said, frowning when her boyfriend nodded, "No, they can't be, werewolves are good."

"You have to admit you're a bit bias, Remus was a rare saint among his race. Not all werewolves are as kind hearted as he was." Vincinte said, knowing it would be bad to be too crass when it came to werewolves because of her beloved Moony.

Ivory looked into his eyes, "So, they're trying to take over Italy, they're the bad guys, and you're just trying to protect the world from them?"

Vince knew she had taken a level of belief to the idea, and with a little assurance she would be on his side, "Yes, and I'm sorry the war is happening while you're here. We'll keep you out of the war as much as possible."

Ivory was smiling again, "What? And miss out on the fun? I'm willing to fight as long as it isn't the full moon."

Vince smiled back, "Still, I don't want to chance your life. Dinner's in a couple hours, why don't you get settled in. To get to the dining hall you go down the starirs until you're in the entrance hall, then go into the room behind the stairs. If you forget, just come and get me or Cyrene, okay?"

"Okay, see you then." Ivory said closing the door after Vince left, finally looking at the large room that was decorated handsomely with a small balcony looking over the water. She smiled, it was going to be a great Summer.

**Vincinte's Room**

"How long do you think you'll be able to keep this charade up?" Cyrene answered, smirking as she saw her brother's muscles twitch slightly, the only sign she had surprised him.

"Normal people knock before entering," Vince stated sourly.

"Since when would you classify me as normal?" Cyrene said raising an eyebrow, "Now answer the question."

He glared at her, "Hopefully forever,"

Cyrene let out a loud laugh, "Time will inevitably uncover dishonesty and lies; history has no place for them."

"That was said by Norodom Sihanouk, right?" Vince said, recognizing the words.

"Yeah, but you aren't getting the point. And to think, everyone thinks you to be the benign twin when you're just as cruel as I am, but in a whole different way," Cyrene said chuckling.

"You're the cruel one, you killed the seven year old, and I believe threatening Smoky was your idea as well. Besides, you openly supported a killer. I'm not the evil twin."

"I personally think that being secretly evil is worse, you have that girl trusting you to be good, and you aren't."

"It's not as bad as you're making it out to be."

"You told her we were protecting ourselves and the magical world. We're working on taking over the magical world, starting by killing all werewolves to eliminate our biggest enemy. Next we're going to start attacking those who oppose vampires at the school, then her family because they were the ones to stop Voldemort, the last to try to take over the world. You can't keep this from her forever, and I doubt she'll be understanding when that day comes." Cyrene said smiling with a grin that she was probably going to cross into the realm of inappropriate comments, "I wonder what she'll do, maybe she'll kill herself out of grief."

"Out."

"Oh, I'm sorry, do you not want me to point out the truth? Too painful for the poor Prince of Vampires?" Cyrene taunted her brother, who was suddenly holding the collar of her shirt.

"What Ivory knows or doesn't know about this is my concern, and my concern alone. I suggest you think about what concerns you, like the battle tomorrow. Now out." Vincinte growled with a dark glare.

"As much as I would love to leave, you'd have to let go of me first," Cyrene pointed out, and managed to stay on her feet when her brother let go of her. She walked to the door, fearless of her brother, "If I were you, I'd keep in mind that there is some truth to my words. Besides, I doubt she'll deal well with your decision to turn her without even discussing it with her."

Vincinte's attention stayed glued to the large window in his room his sister left. After killing Ivory's family, perhaps the entire group she called 'The Pack' he planned to turn her. She had never held any sentimentality to the group, and would find someone else to blame for the death, if he was luck, perhaps he could convince her it was werewolves. After taking over the world, Cyrene would be killed for she was far too rash and would never fit into the category of ruler, though fitted the role of psychotic general quite well. He would make sure that he and Ivory would rule the world as King and Queen. All he needed to get there was to tell a few little white lies.

(A/N: Okay, I've been waiting to write this Summer for months… which doesn't explain why I haven't been posting the chapters to get here sooner. The next chapter will have a lot of blood in it, but is VERY important. The next chapter changes a lot of things, even if you don't understand what all it changes by the end of the chapter. Just in case, I think I need to clear one thing up: THE WEREWOLVES ARE THE GOOD GUYS!!! They're stopping the vampires from completely taking over, or trying to at least.

Please tell me your opinions so far, I've been getting fewer and fewer reviews and don't know whether you guys are being lazy(which I can respect) or have stopped reading the story and I'm only posting for a couple of my friends that are reading this. So if you're still reading, please review!)


	16. Chapter 16

**June 30, 2017 09:13 AM**

Ivory stretched out as she woke up with a slight smirk as she saw that there wasn't a uniform on the foot of her bed. The vampires had chosen to all wear white in battle, it made them easier to pick out. Ivory had found out just how helpful they were in the two battles she had participated in. While her uniform was one of the cleanest, since she never went for the kill, Cyrene had been a frightening sight. You had to have prior knowledge to know her clothes had been white at one point. She scoffed at the dried blood covering her, "What idiot decided to subject clothes to this? We should wear black or red, that way no one can tell how much blood is on us."

Vince rolled his eyes, he had significantly less blood on him, "Maybe if you learned to actually _drink_ the blood of you enemy instead of just rupture the artery, you'd make less of a mess."

Ivory smiled and pulled on jeans deciding not to change out of the t-shirt Vince had leant her after the battle yesterday. She had always found the twins to be entertaining, and putting them in a more comfortable environment only increased their constant banter. Ivory saw a face in the corner of her eye, and turned to see Tom standing passively in the room, "Perv."

"He wasn't watching you get dress, neither of us were." Remus said softly, and Ivory had a sudden bad feeling as she saw their faces.

"What's going on? Is something wrong?" Ivory asked looking between them.

"Not wrong, just different," Tom said and frowned at her imploring look, "Sorry, we aren't allowed to tell you what. It's the rules."

"Since when do you follow the rules?" Ivory said pouting, she hated surprises.

"Obviously you haven't spent too much time getting to know all those dead people. It makes me wish I could kill them. Again." Tom said rolling his eyes.

"We weren't called the marauders for nothing." Remus replied.

"So, is there anything you can tell me?" Ivory asked, exasperated.

The two shared a look and said in unison, "Happy Fifteenth Birthday!"

Ivory hid the fact that she had forgotten her own birthday, "You two are no bloody help. Should I be expecting something bad to happen?"

"Well, it's not bad," Tom said.

"Actually, no one really knows. It could be." Remus pointed out.

"Yeah, I feel _so _much better. Can you just leave me the hell alone?" Ivory spat, and the two shook their heads.

"What? I didn't even say anything yet." Vincinte said, causing Ivory to turn quickly.

"Oh… not you, Rem and Tom. They're freaking me out."

"So, did they leave?"

Ivory listened to the two and sighed, "They say they can't leave until it happens."

"Until what happens?"

"They aren't allowed to tell me."

"That doesn't help."

"That's what I said."

**02:47 PM**

"Lovely afternoon on a full moon day, perfect place to take your girlfriend on her birthday," Cyrene mocked as they walked through a small park in the outskirts of the city, "Happy Birthday, you're getting mauled to death by a werewolf."

"She won't be mauled by a werewolf." Vince said with a level of surety, "You shouldn't even bring it up."

"What if I had a reason to?"

"Such as?"

"Him."

One of the younger werewolves, recognizable by the fresh scars on his face was lurking in the shadows with his wand pointed at the trio. Vincinte felt Ivory's hand go rigid in his own, and with a quick glance he saw that the werewolf wasn't the source of the problem. She had her eyes closed and her eyes were closed in pain. Vince thought briefly before picking Ivory up and turning to Cyrene, "I don't care what you do to him, just keep him away from me and Ivory."

Cyrene turned to the poor werewolf with a carnal grin as she used a sticking charm on his feet, "Trust me, you won't see him again. Alive."

Vincinte ignored his sister as he quickly apparated to the mansion and made it to Ivory's room with nothing more than a stern look from Enrica. He tried to set Ivory down on the bed, but she flinched the second her shoulders touched the mattress. Ivory situated herself so she was moderately comfortable as she sat on the bed. Vince gave her an unsure look, "What's going on? Are you okay?"

"I'm supposing the is the mysterious 'it' Rem and Tom were talking about this morning." Ivory said biting her lip, "As for being okay, I don't know. My left arm, shoulders and part of my back went numb."

"What?"

"It means I can't feel them at all. And you claim to be smart."

"I know what numb means, I just can't imagine why they would. Anything else?"

Ivory turned to Tom and Remus who were watching silently, "You two better have one hell of an explanation for this."

"Or what? It's not like you can kill us." Tom said humorlessly.

"What the hell?" Ivory watched as her wand moved from her pocket to her left arm by an unseen force. She paled as the wand didn't stop moving when it reached her skin, slowly melting into her skin. Soon it was completely under her skin, leaving nothing but a darkened area. She gave Vince a frightened look, "If this happened to my numb arm, what the hell is going to happen to my shoulders."

**1:50 PM in England**

The Pack all looked to Vaughn as she began shaking with eyes that didn't see anything physical, what remained of her shock from having visions. She came out of the vision suddenly, and was silently looking at her hands. When she looked up and saw everyone's eyes on her she didn't look surprised, "I suppose you want to know about the vision."

"No, after some twenty years of this, we suddenly don't care what you foresee." Wolf said smirking.

"Shut it," Vaughn said before frowning, "I'm not sure, but I think I was watching a massacre. One person killed like fifty people who seemed to be soldiers, it was hard to tell it was really dark, and none of it seemed real."

"What made it seem like it wasn't real?" Kris asked.

"The one killing was…" Vaughn took a deep breath, "I swear, I will kill anyone that laughs, but I think it was some kind of sick angel. All I could really make out was-"

**Italy**

Ivory shifted uncomfortably, "Something in my back is moving, can you see anything?"

Vince looked at her back, almost hoping he didn't see anything, "Oh, that's kind of gross,"

"What's gross?"

"You don't want to know,"

"If I didn't want to know, I wouldn't have ask- that felt disgusting, what was it?"

"I don't know how to say this, but there's bones poking out of your back."

"… You're kidding, right."

"No, and they're getting longer. I don't know if I should be here."

"Why the hell not?"

"You're bleeding, you're whole shirt is soaked in blood actually."

"And?"

"I'm part vampire, human blood smells… uh, they have joints now,"

"How long are they?"

"About three feet long, and still growing."

"Shit,"

"It gets worse,"

"How could it _possibly_ get worse?"

"The bones are starting to grow feathers."

Ivory tensed up again, rubbing her temples lightly with her right thumb and middle finger, "Why the hell am I growing wings?"

"They stopped growing, if it's any consolation. They're only about five feet long."

"That doesn't stop the fact that I grew them in the first place." Ivory practically growled, "Rem. Tom. Explanation. NOW."

Remus bit his lip, "I understand that you aren't happy with this, but when the time comes, you will be told more about why you're like this."

"What he's trying to say is that we aren't allowed to tell you anything. Seriously, the others will make our afterlives hell. That and we will be subjected to a decade of pain and torture." Tom tried to clarify."

"I hate you both, can you leave now?" Ivory barely got out.

"Well, we can, but I would think you'd want us to tell you how to get rid of those beautiful black wings and re-grow them at will." Remus said, "And perhaps tell you how to use them, seeing as you have to deal with them for the next hour."

"Fine, Rem can stay, Tom, out."

"Why do you always choose to abuse me? You never treat Remus like this." Tom complained.

"Because he isn't rude, evil, cruel to animals and doesn't laugh at his own jokes, now go." Ivory said, "Now what should I know how to do with my wings?"

The next hour Remus helped Ivory learn to move her muscles in a way that would make her fly, fold her wings on her back, and curl them around her. He gave her an approving look as she sat curled u pin her own wings, "Your wings are the best shield you have, they can deflect any spell and when protecting you, the feathers are like concrete. I wish I could tell you more than that, but I'm not allowed to. 'Cruor Divinus' will make you change into this form, 'Cruor Desino' will return you to your regular form. Will you change back and forth a couple times?"

Ivory was almost zombie-like as she said the counter curse for her condition, watching in the mirror as her wings molted away into dust and her wand came out of her arm and fell to the floor. She grimaced before she said the incantation to re-grow her wings, which took only a few seconds this time. Remus explained that it took longer for her to transform the first time because her body had to get used to the feeling and her bones had to adjust slightly to make a pathway that could be used in the future. As she molted for the first time she looked to be at the point of tears and collapsed into Vince's arms when he offered them. Remus took the hint and left.

"What the hell did I do to deserve this? Why do I have to be so different from everyone else?" Ivory said quietly as a few silent tears ran down her face.

"It isn't your fault," Vince answered quietly, "You don't deserve any of this, you deserve a quieter life."

**England**

"- that she had wings, big black wings." Vaughn finished.

"What kind of wings?" Angel asked.

"They were like bird wings,"

"So it was someone who looked like an angel." Kris asked.

"Yeah, but I couldn't see what the person looked like, the face was really fuzzy, but she looked familiar." Vaughn said.

"Any idea how long it will be until this comes to be?" Wolf said, looking at her curiously.

"Yeah, I just happened to see a calendar in the vision, just like I always do." Vaughn rolled her eyes, "My only guess is that it's in about six months to a year, because that's generally when my vague visions happen. The clearer the closer."

"How was she killing everyone?" Sable asked curiously, "Muggle means? Magic?"

Vaughn frowned, "It was some kind of magic, that's for sure, but none that I've ever seen. She was just pointing to all these strange looking people, and they were dying. It seemed the more she killed, the more blood got on her. And she wasn't even close to them."

"Strange looking people, as in foreigners? They're probably not anywhere near here, we might only hear about it in the paper." Ferret pointed out, "Though with our luck, we will somehow be involved in this."

Kris rolled his eyes, "Yeah, because we are just _so _lucky."

**November 29, 1999 10:48 PM**

"Andy, I know you're new, but I was supposed to leave almost an hour ago. My wife's going to be pissed." One of the two men in the hall of prophecies, much smaller than it had been before the Battle of the Department of Mysteries four years ago, said to the younger one.

"Sorry Grisom, but this place still scares the hell out me." The younger complained as he held the prophecy carefully.

"Seriously Andy, we're not that formal down here, call me John." John said irately, "Besides, it's just another room down here. It's not like it's the Department of Experimental Magical Creature Cloning. Last week they had fused a blast ended skrewt and a hippogriff. Like those damned things need to be any more dangerous. Called them Skriffs."

"Okay, that's understandably a bit scarier, but this room's filled with Merlin knows how many prophecies that may or may not come true." Andy said, "Besides, it's always so quiet in here."

"Not when someone won't stop listing off stupid insecurities." John muttered under his breath quietly enough that Andy didn't even notice.

"That's why I like other people coming down with me, it gives me something to talk to. Also, the organization system still confuses me." Andy explained, as they finally came to the shelves in the room.

John sighed, "It's pretty simple, Andy. All prophecies and visions are organized by the name of the Seer who made the prophecy or the one who saw the vision. Once there, you organize the prophecy by theme, first two shelves are death, third is war, fourth is love, fifth is tragedy, sixth is the defeat of another human, and the last is for ones that don't fit in any other category. Each shelf is organized by date of the prophecy or vision. Get it?"

"Yeah, but why take up so much space?" Andy asked, noticing that most shelves were empty.

"This room is huge, we have nothing else to do with the space." John explained, exasperated, "Now who made the damn prophecy?"

"Sibyl Trelawny." Andy answered, after a quick look at the prophecy, "Heard by Armon-"

"I don't care who heard it. Now why aren't we walking to her section yet?"

"I didn't know we were moving yet."

"Well, obviously you know now, so why are you still standing there?"

"Sorry, sir." Andy said walking off in a hurry.

John sighed wondering if he was ever getting home, "Wrong way, idiot,"

"Oh, right," Andy said changing directions and hurrying to find Trelawny's line of shelves, which he of course passed and had to be dragged back to them by John. Then he just stood there looking at the prophecy, like an idiot. John resisted the urge to just hex Andy right there and then so he could go home, "So, what's the theme of the prophecy?"

Andy looked at the prophecy's plaque again, "Uh, I don't know. It doesn't say anything about a theme on here."

"Good, it's not supposed to." John responded, how the hell did a kid this idiotic get a job as an unmentionable?"

"Then how do I know what the theme is?"

"You listen to it."

"We're allowed to listen to them?"

"Yeah, it's in the job description. What were you doing during orientation?"

"There was this really cute girl sitting across from me in a low cut shirt-"

"Let's just listen to the prophecy."

Andy began looking over the prophecy again. He frowned, "Uh, how do you play it? I don't see a play button."

"You're a muggle born, aren't you?"

"Yeah,"

"Figured as much," John said pulling out his wand and tapping the top of the prophecy. Watching as Andy looked on curiously, John was amused o see him jump and the monotone voice that was put together by the department.

_The following Prophecy was made by Sibyl Trelawny on the twenty-seventh day of the eleventh month in the year 1999._

"Why didn't the voice just say November 27th, 1999?" Andy asked.

"Because that's how we're supposed to do it, it's regulation. Now shut up."

_The Dark Lord gone, his heirs step up,_

_Like him in intention and strategy,_

_But lack his mortality and know the power he did not,_

_They cannot be defeated by man,_

_Niether by any mortals hand,_

_Only by an Angel born of London Wolf,_

_Bathed in blood of the corrupt,_

_Outcasted by those of her kin,_

_Deceived by he who stole her heart,_

_The Angel will have their blood._

"Well, that wasn't dark or depressing. Though I thought You-Know-Who didn't have any children." Andy said.

"He didn't, now just put it on the sixth shelf so we can go home."

"Got it, John," Andy said hurrying to the sixth shelf as John began walking towards the exit. Unfortunately, John was stopped by a small tinkling crash, followed by Andy saying, "Oh, shoot."

John turned around to see the unpleasant sight, "Shit, we're going to be here for hours filling out the paperwork for this. Good job, idiot."

"Sorry John,"

"Oh, trust me, you'll be sorry once you see how much paperwork we have to do."

-

(A/N: Poor Ivory, doesn't even get a decent birthday. Okay, I'm estimating this will be about thirty chapters, but that's open to changing at my will. About Ivory's wings: Her wings don't destroy her shirt or anything, they poke two holes in the back, and that's the only damage. The scene in 1999 was about a prophecy made about two and a half years before Ivory was born, but only 78 days before the twins were born (February 13, 2000). It gives vague spoilers, but it doesn't give too much away… at least that's what I think. Next chapter is when they return to Hogwarts, which will include Ivory freaking out about her wings, and Cyrene being a jerk. Then again, when isn't she a jerk. I would like to hear any questions or comments by getting reviews, thank you to those few who reviewed last chapter. And yes, Vincinte is supposed to be scarier than Cyrene, in his own sick little way.)


	17. Chapter 17

**July 1st, 2017**

"Finally daring to leave your room, eh mortal?" Cyrene said tauntingly as she sat across from Ivory at breakfast.

"Hi, Cyrene," Ivory said quickly glancing up at the vampire as she ate, and then froze. Ivory slowly stared at her, "What happened to your face?"

Cyrene ghosted her hand over a fresh scab that ran down her right cheek from just under her eye to about the same height as her mouth. She smirked, "Vince said I could take care of the werewolf any way I wanted to, so I chose to make it a fist fight. I was winning until the moon rose early, I didn't know that werewolves could transform while the sun was still up."

"You could have asked me," Ivory said, "Remus knows it all to well, it even effects him in ghost form when he's here, which is why he tends to stay in the spirit world on the full moon."

"Thanks for warning me,"

"And what's with your hair… it used to be as long as mine."

Cyrene's hair, which used to almost reach her waist, now barely hung to her shoulders, "Yeah, I cut it, I was tired of it getting in the way while I was fighting."

Ivory contemplated Cyrene's new look for a few seconds, "It looks good on you,"

**August 26****th****, 2017**

"Seriously Vince, you didn't need to get my school supplies for me," Ivory said as she finished packing her books in her trunk so she didn't have to bother with it in a few days.

Vince gave her a look, "Technically, _I_ didn't. Dad did. Apparently he considers you his third child. He's convinced that you're exactly how his child would be if he and mom had chosen to have another. Only you aren't a vampire and you would have blue eyes."

Ivory just stared at him, "…What?"

"Little creepy, huh?"

"No, kidding. I've only known him for almost three months."

"Yet he knows something about you that your own family doesn't know."

"And it'll be a cold day in hell when they find out I have wings." Ivory said sharply, "And for the millionth time, I do not want to use them to fly as a mode of transportation."

"Vince wasn't the one to suggest that, I was," Cyrene said from the doorway, in her white uniform covered in blood.

"What are you doing here? I thought there was a battle on the East side of town?" Vince asked, his eyes showing minor irritation.

"I just thought the Prince of the Vampires would like to know that the war is over." Cyrene smirked as an emotion Ivory didn't recognize flashed across Vince's face,  
"Father wants to talk to us about where we're going from here. Sorry about interrupting you two."

Vince got off Ivory's bed and walked to her with an apologetic smile, "Sorry love, it's a vampire only meeting. I'm sure you can find something to do, right?"

Deep down, Ivory felt something was off with his tone, but ignored it with a slight smile, "Yeah, I think I'll go through my defense text. I'm going to need to study all I can if I'm going to pass my OWL. I still can't believe Kris got six OWLs."

"Yeah, this is going to take a while, so I probably won't see you until dinner."

"Okay, don't keep your father waiting." Ivory said, prompting Vince to kiss her on the cheek and leave.

Ivory got her Defense book out and pretended to read it until she was sure both Vince and Cyrene were out of ear shot. She crossed the room and set her book down on the desk and began taking off her socks. She hardly jumped when Remus began speaking, "Do you mind if I ask just what you're up to?"

"Something doesn't feel right in the pit of my stomach, there's something going on, and I'm going to figure out what." Ivory replied.

Remus raised an eyebrow, "So you're going to do so by taking off your shoes?"

"Shoes are too noisy, but I've snuck up on Vince hundreds of times just wearing socks, I'm quieter this way?"

"And if you're caught."

"First off, that's not going to happen, second, I'll claim that I was just curious. Which is the truth anyway."

"Alright, go ahead, but I want it on the record that I advise against this."

Ivory brushed him off and silently made her way down the hall, up the stairs and crouched outside the partially closed door where she could hear several voices speaking.

"Are they all dead?" Ivory heard Renato ask.

"I made sure of it myself father," Cyrene assured him, Ivory could almost see her licking her lips. She liked drinking blood a little too much.

"Good, good, I wasn't expecting them to be dealt with for another six months, that means we can move onto the next phase of the plan. You haven't changed your mind, have you?"

"No father," Vincinte said, his voice a little strained.

"It's acceptable for you to have second thoughts, Vincinte, this is a mentally difficult mission to complete. Ivory may be an aggressive girl, but she's as pure as her name suggests. Has she changed your mind?"

"No, and even if she has, you think me stupid enough to say so openly? I know that I'd be killed if I refused."

"Come now, you think so poorly of me? You'd only be imprisoned for life. She however, would not be half so lucky."

"Somehow, I find that no more appealing than death."

"Does that mean I have your support as we expand our kingdom?"

"Yes, father."

"Then you are free to begin the next phase whenever you're ready,"

At this point Ivory left, trying to pretend she hadn't heard the conversation. Vince had told her that the vampires were the good guys, and she didn't want to believe otherwise. Perhaps she just heard the whole conversation out of context. Maybe they were just talking about another group of people rebelling against their rule. _Then you are free to begin the next phase whenever you're ready,_ Ivory felt sick because of that phrase. She decided to pretend it had never happened, because with such little evidence she couldn't believe her Vince was evil.

**Back with the Vampires **

The only ones in the room were the three 'royal' vampires, Vince standing rigidly in the middle of the room, Cyrene leaning against a wall in a smug manner, and Renato leaning back in his chair behind his desk with his feet propped up on his desk. Renato, despite his more than casual appearance(he was still wearing his trademark pink shirt) had a serious look on his face, "So how will you get the Potters out in the open so we can launch an all out attack and kill them all quickly?"

Vince looked at his father dryly, "We're going to start killing off the half-breeds at the school, and if it takes more than them to get the reaction we want, we'll move to muggle borns. What we want is for the so called 'Pack' to suspect us and tell their parents their suspicions. We'll confront them at the school."

"And Ivory?"

"Will not be present to have the choice to take her family's side."

Renato smiled, "Good, good, we'll have the world under our control in no time."

**Seeptember 1****st****, 2017**

"Obviously, it's a little too late now, but if we ever do this again, let's go to London the night before so you two don't have to drag me out of bed at six in the morning." Ivory said quietly, "Especially when my family wants to have breakfast in the morning with us and thinks we were in London last night."

"But that wouldn't piss you off," Cyrene said with the almost malicious smile that hadn't left her face since the war was one. According to Vincinte she was still on this sick high from doing something gross to the leader of the werewolves, like pulling out his heart with her bare hands(and a small dagger) and eating it. Ivory had only heard half of this, being disgusted enough to cover her ears halfway through the explanation.

"How long 'til we get to your parents' house?" Vince asked rolling his eyes at his sister.

Ivory stopped and nearly copied Cyrene's evil little grin, "It depends, do you want to do this the conventional way, or freak them out?"

The twins looked at each other and spoke simultaneously for the first time in a couple years, "Freak them out,"

"Then follow me, you can jump fences right?" Ivory said making her way down a side street two streets down from her house.

"Couldn't we get in trouble for that?" Vince asked as he followed her to a driveway with a four foot fence at the end, slightly amused.

Ivory gave him a teasing look, "Only if we get caught. Scared?" She took the last few steps at a faster face before easily jumping the fence in a practiced motion that seemed as natural to her as breathing.

"Well, looks like your girlfriend has a few tricks up her sleeve. Wonder how she learned to do that?" Cyrene asked.

"Over the years I've learned that when I see something unexpected, I generally don't want to know the reason behind it." Vincinte said shortly before he jumped the fence, and was quickly followed by Cyrene. Ivory led them with a small smile to the far corner of the lush garden and held up a hand up for silence as she crouched to look through a small hole in the fence, which was seven feet tall, and then stood with a grin.

"The old bachelor who lives here doesn't get up until nearly noon, and his relatives only visit in the second and third weeks in a month, so we're safe. My family's eating inside, so they won't see how we get in. My mom hates the back door closed if it's not raining, snowing, or below about thirty-six degrees." Ivory explained quietly.

Cyrene sized up the five foot tall girl and the fence, that she could only reach the top of if she jumped, "I don't think you can get over that fence."

"Wanna bet?" Ivory challenged.

"I was up for it until you said it like that." Cyrene said, put off by Ivory's surety.

Ivory turned back to the fence and easily slid her small hands between the boards in the fence, brought one foot to the same height as her hands to brace herself. She used her foot on the fence to jump and catch herself on the top of the fence, then quickly throw her other leg over the top so she was straddling the fence. She looked down on Cyrene, "Think you can do half as well, or do you want help?"

"Shut it, princess," Cyrene said, and tried to copy what Ivory had done. The keyword there being tried. Ivory caught one of her hands as she was falling and Vince had grabbed her feet and was boosting her to the top of the fence. Cyrene scowled as she dropped to the other side of the fence. Vince accepted help with no quarrel. Ivory led them to the back door, that led to the living room in the Potter house rather than the dining room, so even though Ivory was leaning on the door frame, no one had noticed her yet.

"They were actually supposed to be here at seven-thirty, right?" Vaughn asked.

"Yeah mum," Kris said trying really hard not to roll his eyes, "I don't see why you're freaking out, they're only five minutes late."

"Have you ever known Ivory to be late?" Vaughn said in a challenging tone.

Kris pretended to think hard on it, "Well, there was that one time she was supposed to come home after school and she didn't get back until sixteen months later."

There was a tense silence where Vaughn, and most likely a few others in the room, were glaring at Kris for bringing up that subject. Wolf cleared his throat, "Vaughn, love, do you really expect three teenagers to actually get up on time?"

"I guess not…" Vaughn sighed, "But Kris brings up a good point, she might have decided to run away again. I mean, she _is_ in Italy with her boyfriend, and she said in the letter she sent us just after her birthday that she loved it there."

"Come on, you think I'd repeat myself by running away without a note again. I'd at least send you a riddle after leaving Italy that would make you think I was in a different country than I was actually in." Ivory argued, rolling her eyes in a bored fashion that had several members of the Pack laughing. Those laughing did not include Vaughn, who was currently at a loss for words.

"How- how did you three get to the back door without anyone seeing you?"

"Well, we are magic."

"Ivory! You're still underage,"

"I said we were magic, I never said we used magic to get here. Little jumpy this morning, aren't we?" Ivory said with a smirk. She and Vaughn still didn't quite see eye to eye. Ivory pointed to Cyrene, "For those of you have never met her personally, this is Cyrene. You already know Vince."

They all looked to Cyrene, who was definitely showing off the few scars she had gotten over the summer as well as her short hair. _Apparently_ her twin's girlfriend's older brother approved. Kris gave her a smile, "Damn,"

Vaughn gave him a disapproving look, "Come on, aren't you going out with that Hazel Yates girl."

"Nope, not since she flipped out and tried to get engaged to me after going out for five and a half weeks. Now she' just a stalker that I have permission to hex if she crosses any lines." He said and gave Cyrene a look, "Which means I'm single."

"And I couldn't care less. You're a messy slob that's rude to their sister and makes inappropriate use of a certain magical artifact. Yes, I do know about that. You should be very ashamed of yourself." Cyrene said with a scoff. Only Rebel and Kris knew she was talking about him smuggling firewhiskey into Hogwarts using the invisibility cloak. Rebel just broke out laughing, but stopped abruptly when asked what was so funny.

"Besides, mate," Smoky said, "If you went out with her, you'd owe me ten galleons."

"Oh, I would so not."

"Yeah you would."

"No, I wouldn't,"

"The rules were that if you ever got in a relationship more doomed than your relationship with Hazel, you would owe me five galleons, and if you ever went out with a girl for over a year, I owed you five galleons. You and Cyrene would be pretty doomed, she's a cruel bitch." Smoky explained.

"I'm right here," Cyrene glared, which made Smoky flinch.

"I meant it as a compliment." Smoky said, before sinking down as far as he could in his chair.

"Of course," Cyrene said leaning against a wall annoyed.

It was quiet for a moment before Vaughn asked her daughter, "So, how was Italy?"

"Well…" Ivory began, then looked at Vincinte. She wasn't going to say anything about the whole becoming a winged creature thing, and Vince said that it was best not to talk about the Vampire versus Werewolf war. She finally gave her mom an almost pained look, "Let's just say it was interesting."

Vaughn, Ferret, Wolf, the (Weasley) twins and Kris all glared at Ivory and Vincinte. Cyrene, having realized what only the two of them didn't, started laughing. Vaughn shot Cyrene a look before turning back to her daughter, "What did you two do? Are you pregnant?"

"Ew, god no," Ivory said, quickly realizing that she had chosen the wrong words, "Me and Vince didn't… we didn't do anything like _that_. I only used the word 'interesting' because I can't think of another adjective to properly describe meeting their family."

Vaughn was not impressed, "Like it could be any worse than spending time with us."

Ivory laughed softly, "Trust me, you haven't met their dad. Nothing could have prepared me for meeting their dad. And the rest of them aren't much better, especially their Aunt Enrica. She's like a sexist mix between Molly Weasley and Professor Snape."

It was silent for a second as everyone failed to be able to picture it.

"She hates all men. She loves her three daughters and is extremely protective over them and guests. Everyone else is open to complete criticism. Also, she is great cook."

"Sounds like the grandmother from hell."

"Yeah, more or less."

-

(A/N: Sorry about the delay, I've been having… issues? I'm not sure what to call having nightmares about torture and death for a weak and a half should be called. Maybe I've finally lost it. All I know is that due to lack of sleep I have found myself having a case of short term dyslexia and general issues stringing sentences together. I felt it would be appreciated that I wait until I could write coherently again. In all truth, I have everything but the ending planned out. But since I'm not planning on having a sequel to this, I want to end this story in a happy way that has closure. The only problem is every time I think about it, one or more of my character's ends up spiraling into a depression. I apologize, I find it hard to write the chapters leading up to the end when the end is still an abstract idea. As always, feel free to send me reviews/comments, they'll cheer me up during the coming week of state mandated testing.)


	18. Chapter 18

(**Warning:** This chapter has a considerable amount of death, and some of it is rather gory. Also, it is mentioned at times in a joking manner, this does not mean I support death, murder and most of the other stuff in here. This is just here to stop you people from being shocked and flaming me saying 'Why did you kill (surprise!)? And (surprise!) didn't deserve to die! And why did you have to explain exactly how?' If you're easily disturbed, skip over any part that has just Cyrene and Vincinte, except for the very end. On with the story!)

On the first day of classes Professor Nate Rivers was caught off guard when not one, but three of his students in his seventh year NEWT class walked in the room wearing muggle clothes and their outer robes. The rest of the class turned to see what was so interesting about the three who took the seats in the back of the class as the bell was ringing. With an exasperated sigh, Smoky and Kris turned to each other and shook their heads. Couldn't the Neri twins and Ivory just be normal? —well, less odd was probably a better description. After seven years at Hogwarts, the boys were doubting there was such thing as a normal witch or wizard.

The rest of the class was more caught up in what the three were wearing. Cyrene was wearing a low cut red shirt, a black skirt and heels. Her companions were dressed a little less outrageously. Both wore faded jeans, sneakers and t-shirts, Ivory's was green while Vincinte was black. All three of them were a far cry from the school uniform. When Professor Rivers finally regained composure he cleared his throat, "As nice as it is for you three to show up, there is a dress code for classes that you have to follow,"

The three shared a look before cracking smiles. Cyrene scoffed, "Seriously, have you even read the school rules?"

Rivers was caught off guard, of course he hadn't read the school rules. There were four hundred and twelve pages long, and were written in very small handwriting that was smudged in places. Like most teachers, he had given it one look and begged Minerva to allow him to just read the abridged version, a foot and a half long piece of parchment she had written forty-seven years ago when she started teaching.

The three read his face easily, and surprisingly, the usually silent Vincinte spoke, "If you had, you would have found the entire dress code laid out fairly simply. Thankfully, my dear friend Ivory has memorized a very important clause in that dress code, which I'm sure she would be glad to recite for you, right Ivory?"

She began with a smirk, "Section twenty-six, Paragraph fourteen: In accordance to proper attire during school hours, first through fourth year students are required to comply fully with the dress code requirements as dictated above. However, for those students fifth year and above, or with permission from the staff, more casual attire may be permitted. Students are still prohibited from wearing sleeveless clothing, shorts, sandals of any kind, skirts more than two inches above the knee, anything that indecently exposes the wearer or impedes the student's ability to learn in anyway. Also, under no circumstances may students wear clothes with inappropriate language or wear sunglasses during classes. Furthermore, a plain black outer robe must be worn, if a teacher finds attire inappropriate or distracting, the student must comply to close outer robe or leave the class."

It was quiet for a moment as people waited to make sure that Ivory was, in fact, done with reciting the rule. The three of them were looking smug, and Cyrene asked tauntingly, "So do you find our clothing inappropriate?"

Professor Rivers glared as he pulled a small pox of pins out of his desk and a list of animals and objects appeared on the board. Rivers sighed, "Truthfully, I'm unsure whether I believe the three of you. Ivory is well known for her ability to memorize anything written on paper, one of you two could have written down for her easily. While I go to consult the school rules, you all are going to do a review from last year. Each of you take a pin and start down the list, when you get to the last animal, which is a bunny, it will be one of three colors, don't panic. This will show me what I need to go over again this year in order to prepare you all for your NEWTs. Ms. Potter, will you be taking the NEWTs this year, and where is that passage in the rules?"

Ivory smirked, "Yes, I will be taking me transfiguration NEWTS this year, but not at the same time as the rest of the class because it's at the same time as my Charms OWLs. And it's section twenty-six, paragraph fourteen. I believe it's from the bottom of page two-ninety-six to the top of ninety-seven."

"Thanks," he said quickly as he left the room to go to the teacher's lounge to check, only to find out that his students were in fact telling the truth. And as far as he could remember, Ivory hadn't messed up on a single. Which brought up the question, why was there a rule about not wearing sunglasses during classes?

**September 19, 2017**

It was six in the morning when Ivory heard sound below her, probably the damned fourth years just trying to piss her off on a Saturday morning when she didn't have to get up. Well, that's what she thought until she heard a stern rap on the door followed by Professor Snape's unmistakable drawl, "Are you all decent?"

Ivory looked at all the other girls who nodded, "Yeah," They all called, disturbed by the fact that Snape felt he had reason to wake them up personally, usually he would send Moaning Myrtle up to wake the girls and simply yelled at the boys.

Snape walked in with a lit wand and a stony face that suggested something was amiss (this was the same look he got on his face when Addy Penkin managed to get through potions without an explosion, fire, or having screwed up terribly on a potion, like turning puce when it was supposed to and emerald green). His voice was low as he spoke, "Everyone's to be in the Great Hall in fifteen minutes,"

"What happened?" Mitze asked as she stood up in her loose silk pajama pants, she was such a spoiled Zabini.

Snape had already started out the door, "You'll find out when everyone is there,"

The five girls all shared a look before scrambling to get decent enough to be seen in the Great Hall, which included Ivory fumbling to put on jeans and grabbing her wand since she slept in the t-shirt stolen from her dad so many years ago, despite the fact she refused to tell the twins where the shirt was from. The five girls were ready within seconds of each other and made it to the Great Hall along with the large crowd of other half asleep students in their pajamas. The kids were somewhat corralled into groups of their own year and everyone was checked to be there by the teachers, who were also wearing their bed clothes, and Wolf was the leader of Ivory's group.

Headmistress McGonagall was standing at the head of the room looking as if she had been pulled from bed as quickly as everyone else. She looked worried and was wringing her hands nervously as she looked over the students with weary eyes, "Thank you all for getting here so quickly, I know that everyone was hoping to sleep in this morning, but I fear I have terrible news. Less than an hour ago a student was found dead in one of the first floor classrooms, and we believe she was killed last night right after dinner, the knife used to kill her was still in her chest. The victim was Hazel Yates, a seventh year Gryffindor,"

"No!" Kris shouted, only to be hugged by Angel who was standing next to him. She held him tightly as he shook, whether from anger or holding back tears, no one knew. Most could sympathize with him, while Hazel was the most annoying Gryffindor by far, none could say that her personality warranted her death.

After a moment the headmistress looked to Professor Snape, "The knife was a potions knife, I was hoping you could identify the owner of it." Snape nodded and took the bloody knife from Wolf, who had put it on a towel to stop the blood from dripping.

Snape gave the knife an appraising look, having instantly recognized the knife and was now trying to match a face to distinctive knife, "It's Hawthorn's."

Every eye in the hall turned to Smoky, "I swear, I didn't kill her,"

The comment was taken with great skepticism until Snape spoke again, "Not Smoky Hawthorn, Vaughn Hawthorn."

Wolf looked less than happy because of this, "Since we would have known if Vaughn was on school grounds, that means that one of my children had to take my wife's knife and bring it to school. Either of you have something to say in your defense?"

Kris stepped out of Angel's arms, "Are you saying that I was stupid enough to steal one of mum's knives? She'd probably use whatever knife I took to skin me alive. And don't try saying I killed her, I was in detention from dinner to eleven-thirty. Half the school saw me get dragged out of the Great Hall."

Eyes turned to Ivory, "The only time I've been anywhere near mum's knives in over a year was on the first, and I think one of the twenty people there would have noticed if I'd taken a knife. I would have had to put it in a pocket, and you would've noticed blood seeping out f my clothes."

"I know, but I need to know what you were doing last night," Wolf insisted, wanting to make sure both his children were cleared of all suspicion.

Ivory sighed, she really didn't want to say where she was, but she didn't have much of a choice, "I was getting help from Conner in the Ravenclaw tower until almost ten-thirty. I have a really hard time with doing silent incantations." Ivory said, glad to see no one had any objections, then added, "What were _you_ doing last night?"

Wolf cocked an eyebrow, "Are you suggesting I killed a student?"

"No, I'm simply saying that you're the only other person who has access to mum's knives. Might as well clear your own name before anyone finds it suspicious."

Wolf sighed, "I had to leave dinner early for a meeting with the minister and Kingsley. He's retiring to the department of Magical Law Enforcement and they wanted some input on who the new head of department should be."

Blame jumped to a few others, but they were just to make people think that the staff had anything on the killer, even though they didn't. McGonagall was having a hard time keeping a straight face as she dismissed the kids, "When we catch the killer, they will be immediately expelled and arrested, if you have further information, please tell your teachers. Now go to sleep, in light of this disruption, breakfast will end at noon instead of ten-thirty. I hope you all rest well."

The students filed out of the Hall as the staff gathered in a small circle trying to think of who was capable of this. All Wolf had to say was, "They did a good job, that's for sure. No fingerprints, no disruption of the blood spatter, and every suspect has a decent alibi."

"What about the Neri twins? Those two are a nasty duo," Rivers asked.

Neville shook his head, "Not possible, they had supplementary classes with me last night after dinner, said they needed a little more help working with the plants. We had class for about two hours after dinner."

**Slytherin Common Room**

The twins waited for the other students to fall back to sleep before sharing a smirk. Cyrene even let out a low laugh, "It worked, we killed the first one, and no one can even say we did it."

Vincinte nodded his agreement, "Of course, but how could a man like professor Longbottom ever expect a hologramic clone for the first ten minutes? That gave you plenty of time to kill her, even the muggle way. Good job on that, by the way. I was sure you'd drink her blood and we'd be dead."

"Figuratively, of course," Cyrene agreed, "You should have seen her go, it was truly amazing. Most mortals won't even accept their death, but once she realized I was going to kill her she stopped moving and spread her arms out. 'Just kill me quickly, I don't want it to hurt.' It was so pathetic," Cyrene said after finishing a scarily accurate impression of Hazel Yates.

Vincinte rolled his eyes, his sister had always enjoyed watching a mortal's last moments, and had never liked Kris' little stalker. Vincinte listened with mild interest as Cyrene continued her graphic explanation of the murder from the life fading from the dark brown eyes to the exact angle of her limbs and how her brown, and now curly, hair had splayed across the stone floor. And the blood, Cyrene obsessed over the blood for many minutes, contemplating whether it was worth it to taste, finally deciding it wasn't and leaving the knife where it was lodged.

Vincinte smiled, if the school had made this much of a ruckus over one murder, he couldn't wait to see what they did next. It was his turn.

**September 29****th****, 2017 at 10:47 PM**

Maura Jenson, a sixth year Ravenclaw, would have been glad to have not been questioned about why she was out after curfew in just about any other situation. As it was, she was leading Professors McGonagall, Flitwick, Rivers and Potter (who had all been found in the teacher's lounge) to the Ravenclaw tower, where she had found Gordy Ott, a seventh year who had hung himself.

Although Maura had explained the situation, none of them were prepared to see Gordy hanging by the neck from a rope attached to the ceiling with a spell ten feet from the walkway. McGonagall and Flitwick quickly levitated the body and cut the rope placing the body gently on the walkway. Wolf was scrutinizing the scene while Rivers shook his head, "Why would Gordy kill himself? He never seemed depressed."

"That's because he didn't kill himself," Wolf said, "People usually hang themselves in public places like this because they want to make a scene when they die, but Gordy wouldn't have been found for hours. He hung himself beyond where the door to the common room is, so he wouldn't be found until at least after breakfast."

"I'm not going to assume he was murdered just because he was hung in an unlikely place, Mr. Potter," McGonagall said, unnerved by the fact that what he said made sense.

"Then explain how he was hanging with his feet twenty meters above where he'd be able to stand to do the sticking charm, even if he was on the banister. Or how he was able to breath long enough to do the charm with the rope tied that tightly around his own neck?" Wolf asked, receiving only shocked looks, "The only other student who hung himself at Hogwarts tied the rope around the banister of the staircase and jumped, the ceiling are too high for any other way to really work. I don't think he killed himself."

They all breathed deeply as they realized he had a point, but that meant they had to accept the fact that two students had been killed in eleven days, and there was no proof.

**September 29****th****, 2017 at 8:23 PM**

Gordy Ott sat on the bench in the corridor next to the Ravenclaw tower checking his watch periodically. Unlike most students, Gordy didn't hate the Neri twins, in fact, he found talking with Vincinte to be quite entertaining. So, when Vincinte had asked to copy his notes from History of Magic, Gordy had agreed. However, he knew the animosity of his housemates towards the Italian twins and had told Vincinte to meet him in this corridor rather than the common room. They had agreed on eight as the time to meet, but Gordy was beginning to grow impatient while he waited.

"Sorry Gordy, I lost track of time," Vincinte said sitting next to Gordy and began digging around his bag for parchment while Gordy produced his notes from class.

"At least you showed up," Gordy said amiably, "I already finished my homework, so I'm not in a hurry."

Vincinte nodded as he began to copy the notes in small, neat handwriting, "Hard to believe Yates is gone, isn't it?"

Gordy sighed, "Yeah, she was annoying, but it seems way to quiet without her. Mainly her and Kris arguing in class, and he's taking it really hard. He hardly talks anymore and it's been what, ten days?"

"Today's the eleventh day, she was killed on the eighteenth," Vincinte corrected, "You think her killer will kill again?"

"Yeah," Gordy said, even though he hadn't shared that sentiment with anyone else. Vincinte gave him a curious look, "Stabbing's usually personal, but when we saw the body there was only one stab wound. Whoever killed her was more or less doing it for entertainment, and will probably kill someone else without a second thought."

Vincinte nodded, "I knew you'd realize that, but the teachers seemed to have overlooked it. I'm just curious, do you have any clue about who the killer might be?"

Gordy hesitated, "Obviously it's someone close to the Potter family, but they all have alibis. Even you and Cyrene."

Vincinte smirked and cast the two sheets of parchment aside, "Yes, but every alibi can be a lie. You recognize this?"

Gordy looked at the small vial that had a liquid the color of olive oil and shook his head, "No, I dropped potions last year. What is it?"

Vincinte smiled, "It's a powerful potion I created a few year back, taken via inhalation. You've been subjected to it the whole time. It's the essence of chervil, mugwort, milfoil and a little wormwood, I also added some feverfew to it because it should have made you a little at ease."

Gordy found himself unable to panic at the thought that Vincinte could be poisoning him, probably the feverfew. Gordy managed to ask, "What does it do?"

"It's supposed to put you into a very deep sleep for several hours, during which you will be practically unattached to your body. You should start to lose feeling in your body now, I wouldn't know, because of how archaic a few of the ingredients are, vampires like me have grown immune to them. Just so you know, my sister killed Hazel. You're our second victim, and if my potion works, you won't feel a thing."

Gordy felt himself grow limp and was unable to move his body and, if he could have, he would've screamed when he felt his entire body lose feeling as he blacked out. He was surrounded by darkness and remembered no more.

**October 10****th**

Jai Waite, sixth year hufflepuff was found in the third floor bathroom burned to death, but her face was intact. Once again, there was no evidence to suggest the killer. Parents began to worry and McGonagall admitted that the killer could be the same one that killed Hazel and Gordy.

**October 21**

Bryce Avery, third year Slytherin, was found at the bottom of the quidditch hoops five hours after quidditch practice ended. His team had let him stay because he needed to work on his aim (many thought him a worse chaser than Ron had ever been at being a Keeper). The Hufflepuff team found him face down in the mud with his throat slit. No weapon was left behind. Several students were pulled from Hogwarts, mainly the muggleborns. Yet those killed had been a muggleborn, a halfblood and two pureblood wizards with no connection to each other.

**November 1**

Recognizing the pattern of the attacks being eleven days apart, the staff makes an unannounced decision to have every staff member on watch. Nothing happens, and no one is found dead.

**November 3**

On the thirteenth day after the last attack not one, but four bodies were found in the entrance hall. Lindsey Graves of Hufflepuff, Cara Todd of Ravenclaw, Steven Pierce of Gryffindor and Hugh Fulke of Slytherin. They were laying side by side, and above their heads was written 'This is only beginning. None are safe.' There were no marks on their bodies. Half the students went home the next day, and were nearly replaced with members of the Auror department, the Order and the Pack.

The remaining students were questioned, and the student who was the killer was still not apparent. School would go on, but Aurors would be monitoring the hallways.

**November 10**

"Cyrene," Vincinte said softly, they were the only two Slytherins in the Common Room, all the other seventh year's families were in the Great Hall and they choose to do their work there.

"Yeah,"

"I know we've been careful not to make it too obvious, but I think we should up the ante," Vincinte said.

"You mean… someone closer to them, just to see if they can figure it out?"

Vincinte nodded, "Worst thing that can happen is we have to confront them, which was our plan in the long run."

"Okay, who?"

-

(A/N: For those of you counting, that's eight deaths so far by the hands of the Neri twins. If you noticed Cyrene's kills (Hazel and Jai) were killed in somewhat more bloody ways, while Vincinte's were faster. The last the both of them worked together on, and for those who care, those four died by the twins drinking their blood then healing the wounds post-mordum. Their main purpose was to have people fear them like they did Voldemort, then reveal their identities to instill that fear. The next chapter will hopefully be up by Friday.)


	19. Chapter 19

**November 23, 2017**

It had been a long, long month of having very few students at school, only about fifty. It was impossible to go anywhere alone, except the dorms. This left Smoky in quite the situation, he not only had his friends bugging him to find something to entertain them, but also his girlfriend, parents, older brother (who was just as cruel as he had always been, when his boss wasn't looking) and every other member of the pack breathing down his neck. He couldn't even go in his dorm because Vincinte was haunting the place, and despite his best efforts to hint that he thought the twins responsible, he didn't have the proof to prove anything.

While many students were restricted to traveling in groups, those that were believed to be able to protect themselves were allowed to wander the halls alone. The Neri twins had been given that honor, which Smoky thought was signing the warrant for another death. Kris's specialty with defensive magic had earned him his, and Rebel had earned it by his well-known strengths in both curses and, well, physical strength. Few people thought to mess with the Malfoy heir. Smoky was the fifth and final to receive freedom, his control of fire was considered to be extremely powerful, even though he had never been given any instruction on how to best use it.

Which is why Smoky was now trying to think of something to do so Conner wouldn't trick him into playing chess with him again. You'd think after beating him sixteen times Conner would grow bored of challenging, but he apparently found beating him very entertaining. Taking a deep breath he decided to go get his History homework that wasn't due for a few days, however, Professor Bins was the only teacher still giving homework. This made students a little more amiable towards doing the work. That meant going to his dorm, but it was a chance he was going to have to take.

He walked into the dorm and felt the hair on the back of his neck stand on end, there was something off about the dimly lit room that had candles lighting the far end. He took a deep breath and tried to convince himself it was just his mind playing tricks on him. Every thought of normalcy left his mind when the double doors to the dorm, which were always left open, slammed shut with a finality Smoky had only seen in horror film. Smoky turned on the spot and frowned, "What the hell do you think you're doing?"

Cyrene was standing in front of the door with a sinister smirk on her face as they both remembered seven years ago when he had said nearly the same words. They both knew her reply before it was even said, "Tsk, tsk, such language mister Hawthorn. One would think seven years would have cleaned that mudblood mouth of yours."

"Back to name calling, are we, leech?" Smoky replied. Cyrene's smirk only deepened.

"If I were you, I wouldn't be acting so brave. It's always the fools that get killed first." Cyrene said in a voice that reminded him of a threat her brother had given.

_If we think you might tell, we will silence you. This goes for your little friends too. You are going to be the only one to know._

"They figured it out on their own years ago. You have nothing to threaten me with." Smoky said, starting to struggle controlling his anxieties.

"Threats? You think I caught you alone in order to threaten you?" Cyrene said backing him up to a wall, "We both know that compared to my brother and I's recent… conquests… threats are childsplay. Don't you agree?"

"I was right, you are the killers," Smoky said bitterly, suddenly realizing that if the half-vampire got her way, he wouldn't leave this room alive, "They'll know it's you after this,"

Cyrene nodded, "Of course, we're you're only enemies at this entire place, the only ones that could possibly kill you, one of the protected little cubs of the Pack. That's why we're killing you. They fear us, now we'll give that fear a name: Neri."

Smoky's mind was racing as he thought of a plan that could work, and came up with one, but he needed to move. He inched in the right direction, "How?"

"How what?" Cyrene said following him right into his trap.

"How are you going to kill me? I assume you're the one who stabbed Hazel and burned Jai, how are you going to kill me?" Smoky asked, _just a few more inches._

"I'm going to do what comes naturally, drink your blood, down to the last drop," She said grabbing one of his shoulders, bearing her fangs impressively.

Smoky stumbled back, or, that's how Cyrene interpreted it. Really, he was using his foot to pull the six foot candelabra down on them. After some initial struggle, all twelve candles fell onto them, though most landed on Smoky who faked a cry of pain as the candles set him of fire. Cyrene managed to get the small fires that had leapt to her clothes and hair under control quickly. She scoffed at Smoky, now engulfed in flame, "I hate to repeat, but I find this an entirely appropriate death for such an idiot like you. Killed by your own attempt to get away."

She erased the singes on her with a wave of her wand as she left the room with an air of haughtiness. Perhaps she had not been able to drink his blood, but he was dead all the same, and it wasn't like she was weak enough to wither away if she didn't drink the blood. She headed off to tell her brother that the target was dead, news that was sure to make her uptight brother crack a smile.

Back in the dorm, the fire around Smoky dispersed in a matter of seconds. For a full minute he lay on the floor catching his breath, the fire had stolen much needed oxygen. He slowly rose to his feet thanking Eyra's curiosity for testing that he wasn't burned by fire so many years ago. Pulling a stunt like that would have been harder if he didn't know whether or not he could actually die. A glace at his clothes proved that they had not fared so well, singed edges and a few holes littered his clothes, but it was nothing too bad. He would change, but telling everyone who the killers were was higher on his list of priorities than appearing in acceptable clothes.

After waiting another minute or so, in vague hope that would lessen his chance on running into either of the twins on the way to the Great Hall where almost everyone could be found on a regular basis. He silently made his way down the stairs, through the common room and navigated through the dungeon. When he was nearly to the stairs to the Entrance Hall he heard voices coming from the other direction and recoiled into a dark hall while he let them pass. Vincinte and Cyrene had Ivory sandwiched between them as they walked. Ivory was laughing as the twins talked about rings Vincinte might get her for when he proposed, and Smoky paled. Ivory shook her head, "You think I would want a fancy ring? Do you even know me? A small, _simple _ring would be best."

"We'll see," Vincinte said slyly.

_There is no way in hell she can marry Vincinte, can't she see he's a monster?_

When they had passed by far enough to be out of earshot, Smoky moved up the stairs and jogged to the Great Hall quickly. Several people looked up to see who was back, and alerted the others upon seeing his ragged appearance. Sable, while he had been uncomfortable being at Hogwarts, didn't hesitate to rush over to his son, "What the hell happened? Your clothes are burnt."

"I know who the killers are," Smoky got out, suddenly aware that every student, and member of the staff, Order and Aurors, even Sirius, the Minister, had his eyes on him.

"How?" Sable asked, in the gruffer voice that let everyone know he was in Officer mode.

"Because she was going to kill me," Smoky snapped, moving to go sit on a bench, realizing how close he had let her get to killing him. Why hadn't he just attacked, oh right, she was invincible. No matter what he did differently, he would have died.

He soon found himself surrounded by people not sure whether to try and comfort him or demand to know what happened. He took a deep breath, "Cyrene and Vincinte Neri are half-vampires, they told me first year. We always hated each other. They do their homework on my bed, they always have. And when Ivory started hanging out with them, she began doing her homework there too. They threatened to kill me if I said anything wrong. This is the first time I've told."

"All first year they made it obvious to me that they had no intention of being peaceful, and Cyrene is just blood thirsty. I would have said something, but they said they would kill everyone. I've wanted to say something for years. And when Ivory and Vincinte started going out… I couldn't, I don't know what she sees in him. I was angry at them for not letting me warn her, or anyone else, that they were evil. This year, I knew it was them that killed Hazel. Cyrene killed Hazel and Jai, and she admitted to it while she was toying with me. I think Vincinte killed the Gordy and Bryce, they were killed in cleaner ways. They probably did the four together."

"Cyrene cornered me in my dorm about fifteen minutes ago. She closed the doors, and started talking with this evil grin on her face. She told me she was going to kill me. I… I used candles to set myself on fire so she would think I was burning to death. After that I left and came here. She was killing me because her and Vincinte wanted everyone to know they were the killers."

It was silent, few knew the Neris were vampires, but all were concerned. How do fight an invincible enemy? You don't, you can't. The truth finally settled on everyone's shoulders, there was a large chance that they would all die in the near future. Lyra banged her fist against a table, drawing attention to herself, "We don't even have a chance of winning against vampires. They're invincible. We're at their mercy. There's nothing we can do?"

"I disagree," The minister said, though most still had trouble thinking of Sirius Black as such. Lyra glared at him, waiting for an explanation. He gave her a strange look in return, "There's always something one can do when there's seemingly no hope. During the second war against Voldemort, we all thought it was hopeless because we didn't know Harry had only faked his death. One of the brightest witches I believe I have ever met one of the wisest things I have ever heard. As long as there is even one person willing to fight, we still have a chance. And I'm going to fight until the day I die, I will not give up. If you fight you have a slim chance, if you give up, you don't have any chance."

The whole room looked accusingly at Hermione, who did nothing but blush in return. Wolf smiled and looked to Smoky, "I'm curious, do you know where my daughter is?"

Smoky scowled, "Slytherin Common Room, with the vampires. They were talking about rings."

"I call Vincinte," Two voices rang out. Kris and Rebel glared at each other in the silence of the room, fighting between older brother rights and the lust for vengeance.

Kris backed down, "I'll be your second,"

"Uh, bad news," Draco said, a family eagle-owl on his shoulder, "The ministry just sent word of an unusual amount of vampires traveling in our direction from Italy. I think the twins sent for reinforcement."

McGonagall sighed, "Okay, fifth year and under, Common Rooms. Everyone else, choose whether or not you're going to fight. Slytherins, you _will _be welcome in Gryffindor," Here she sent a meaningful glance at the young Gryffindors, "Everyone else, get sleep while you can. Tomorrow war will once again come to Hogwarts."

-

(A/N: Okay, the whole Friday thing fell through. I was too busy playing Halo Wars, which is surprisingly entertaining. Next chapter is a little out there, but there's a lot of Remus and Tom. Questions, comments and anything else are appreciated.)


	20. Chapter 20

**November 24, 1:37 AM**

Professor Snape had always decided that the best way to impress the gravity of mistakes on his students was to have them test their potions. Ivory's failure in making a complicated sleeping potion in their short potions class the day before was why the twins were up this late with her… or was it early now? Apparently, adding asphodel root in before bicorn horn not only changed to potion from light blue to a puke green, it also reversed the effects. Vincinte was glancing at the clock, his sleeping potion that he had used on Gordy and Bryce, which he had named 'excessum letalis' because of it's effects, would only last about twelve hours by his calculations.

The vampires were on their way, and would arrive by dawn. He hoped to have conquered Hogwarts and debased the Ministry of Magic by Lunch, then calmly explain to Ivory how a rebellion group had decimated everything, and how he was fighting to restore it. In a week he would kill his dad and sister, and soon enough, marry Ivory. First things first, he wanted to give himself plenty of time to defeat her family in battle. His plan would be far more difficult if she saw something. As Ivory began a game of ridiculous riddles (Vincinte was convinced that the messed up potion had temporarily lowered her IQ) he quietly uncorked the vial of excessum letalis in his pocket and waited for her to fall into a deep sleep he was worrying would never come.

After tuning out the first few riddles, Vincinte began watching for symptoms of his potion. Ivory was smiling as she asked, "What month has twenty-eight days?"

Cyrene had a look that screamed how much she wanted the girl knocked out, "That's not even a riddle, it February."

"No silly, they all have twenty-eight days, most just have more." Ivory corrected, "How about this one: What in the middle of Paris?"

"Eiffel Tower,"

"No, an 'R', p-a-R-i-s," Ivory spelled out, "What belongs to you, but others use it more than you do?"

"Kindness."

"No, your name. You really suck at this," Ivory said amused, "This one's longer: As I was going to St. Ives, I met a man with seven wives, each wife had seven sacks, each sack had seven cats, each cat had seven kittens. Kits, cats, sacks and wives, how many were going to St. Ives?"

Cyrene glared at the ceiling a short moment before declaring, "two thousand eight-hundred and two."

"No, I'm the only one going to St. Ives. Never said they were all going to St. Ives too," Ivory said suddenly yawning in the middle of her hyperactivity, "Okay, a plane crashes on the border between the United States and Mexico, where do they bury the survivors."

"In the ground."

Ivory seemed dazed and blinked hard, flexing her hand a few times in confusion. Then she shook her head at Cyrene, "You don't bury survivors,"

Cyrene was fairly annoyed by this point, "You do know many of the people on border control there are actually vampires, right? There would be no survivors."

"That's just sick," Ivory said, and then she began staring at her hands that were resting on her knees. She looked up, "I think there's something wrong, I can't move and my eyesight is going. What should I do?"

Vincinte and Cyrene feigned concern, knowing it was the potion. Vincinte knelt by her and held her hand, "So you can't even hold my hand," Panic spread across her face and she tried to pull back with her neck, not enjoying the lack of control. Vincinte tried to comfort, "Maybe it's a side effect of the potion Snape made you drink."

"I can't see," Ivory said very quietly before slumping back, she was out cold. Vincinte and Cyrene shared a smile as he picked her up and carried her to her bed in her dorm. He plucked the vial of his potion from his pocket and capped it with a smile.

"Phase three of the plan complete," Vincinte grinned as he pocketed the vial again, "Now to sneak outside and wait for our army."

"Then do we get to kill?" Cyrene asked, and Vincinte nodded and the two made their way out into the dismal November night (or morning I guess). It was going to rain in a matter of hours, but that wasn't going to deter the plan that was in progress.

**Ivory's, uh… mind? Subconscious? Just read…**

She had panicked when her eyesight had faded to black, and more so when she could no longer move her body. Then it went a step further, she felt herself torn from her body and for a while was just in a calming blackness that surrounded her entirely. A sudden white abyss appeared above… no below… hell, she couldn't tell where it was in relation to her. Or her in relation to it. She watched as she came closer, almost floating, shifting so she landed softly on her feet.

She looked down at herself, she had never seen the clothes she was wearing before. A black short-sleeved shirt that reminded her of the long tunics she'd seen in movies about medieval times, a skirt that fell to her knees, also black. She was barefoot and her hair was down for the first time in a few years.

Ivory looked around, at first only seeing an expanse of white in every direction, then saw a small black stone on the ground. Beyond that stone was a second, and farther on was a third. _Bread crumbs_ Ivory thought with interest as she walked from stone to stone on the seemingly never ending trail. She didn't know why she was following it, other than the fact that there was nothing else to do. Ivory saw a darker area up ahead and sped up her pace for curiosity's sake.

At the end of the trail the stones fanned out to outline a circle about two meters in diameter. Ivory looked around again before she could do the only logical thing she could think of; she stepped into the center of the circle. The world – well, the white abyss – seemed to spin around, and in the mere second she had her eyes closed to counteract the dizziness she was moved to a place full of people. Same white background. Groups of familiar people were all around her smiling knowingly, like Angel's smile when Kris was about to pull a prank he'd told her about. Suddenly the correlation between all the people clicked.

_They're all dead._

_Does that mean…?_

Ivory felt a person on each side of her steady her, noticing her knees go weak before she even did. She looked to her left to come face to face with Tom smirking, her head snapped to her right to find Remus. With a mad flail she knocked herself away from them and took a few steps back, bumping into Lily and James, who promptly apologized for standing so close. Ivory gaped, they were all there: Order members long dead, the eight that had recently been murdered at school – even Toni's Uncle Thomas and Mr. Olivander. More importantly, she had been able to touch them. Her whole life she had seen and heard dead people, but touch? Never, the living can't touch the dead. Ivory took a deep breath, "I'm dead."

Tom rolled his eyes, "You aren't dead,"

Ivory looked at him critically, "Then what the hell is going on?"

"It's complicated," Remus sighed, "You aren't dead, but you aren't exactly alive either. Blame your dad, you inherited it from him."

"So, I'm in death?" Ivory asked, failing to comprehend what was going on.

Tom and Remus shared a look, and then said simultaneously, "Not exactly."

"I'm not going to get any straightforward answers, am I?" Ivory stated more than asked, and there was a general agreement from those gathered.

"Ivory, we're here to explain who you are," Remus said calmly.

"I'm guessing I'm not just a normal teenager trying to live in a modern ever-changing world."

"No, you aren't." Remus replied with a sympathetic expression.

"So why does there have to so many people?" Ivory gestured to the hundred or more people surrounding her.

"To make the story more interesting," A woman's voice said, and Ivory turned to see another young couple. She recognized Vaughn's parents from an old locket Aunt Lynn had.

"Okay, let's get this over with," Ivory said taking a deep breath, and her grandmother May began the story.

"I was a half-blood muggle, my mother was the witch. More than that, she was often called detached from our world. Klyndelle Armstice was a Seer with immense control, and had a particular ability to see someone and say how long they had to live. Her constant talk of the dead made many criticize her work. That's where Vaughn inherited her Seeing from and where you got your… odd powers."

James took up the story, "You were given the power to speak and interact with the dead. Which, if any adult got the power, would have been used for council. You used this power for friends, other than a select few mortals. But even then, you always felt different than everyone else. You hid things, especially your power. You feared rejection if you told anyone, and never imagined there could be more to you powers."

"Right before you were born, a prophecy was made about you," Lily added, "It declared you the world's savior. Usually, someone would have recognized you as the subject of the prophecy. Unfortunately, a mistake caused you to be blind to the importance of your powers."

"As a Slytherin, I know we like being told we're right," Tom said, "You were right in saying you were an Angel of Death."

Ivory looked around, "What does that even mean?"

Remus smiled at her, "You _are _death. The hand that decides whether a person lives of die. You have the power to interpret guilt or innocence and punish those who deserve it. There have been very few in history, but they always arise when a cause comes that require their power. A boy or girl with extraordinary powers that destroys evil."

"And that's me?" Ivory asked, and everyone nodded. Ivory blinked a few times, "Is this a joke? There is no way I'm some ultimate good, I've killed in cold blood, in war. How can I be an angel?"

"You were chosen," Dumbledore said softly, and Ivory scowled. "You carry a great burden, the stopping of a war. One with clean hands cannot kill easily. You are a descendent of the great valkyrie race. Do you know the history of the valkyries?"

"In ancient times they were the twelve goddesses that decided those who would die in war, right?" Ivory answered feeling uneasy.

Dumbledore smiled, "Yes, and in particular, what is well known trait about them?"

_Wings._

"No," Ivory said slowly, "There is no way I can be a valkyrie. They're a legend, a myth from pagan mythology."

"So are wizards," Dumbledore said quietly, his eyes twinkling.

Ivory fell silent. _A valkyrie._ _Also called an Angel of Death. _Ivory took a deep breath and closed her eyes. None of this was making sense, why would she be a valkyrie if there hadn't been one in ages? Maybe there was going to be a war soon that she would have to call deaths on. Then again, how would she do that in the first place?

"Your wand morphing into your hand," Tom said in a low voice, the one that meant he was being serious, "Do you know why that happens?"

Ivory thought for a moment, now second-guessing her thoughts. She had been wrong on too many things already to assume she got this right, "…to stop me from dropping my wand when I'm flying?"

Many grinned at the simplistic assumption, Remus even gave a quiet chuckle, "No, though it does serve that purpose as well, it was meant for killing. All you have to do is point to someone you believe deserves to die, and your muscles will automatically use your magic to kill whoever it is."

"Really," Ivory was starting to feel sick to her stomach, _why does killing have to be so simple?_

"That's not even the best part," Tom announced, "You can kill _anyone_, as long as they are guilty."

At first Ivory wasn't sure what he was referring to, then it clicked with resounding finality. Ivory breathed sharply, "Why would I have the need to kill a vampire?"

The dead shuffled ominously, refusing to look at her, and many ended up leaving altogether. Before long it was just the eight that had been murdered, her grandparents, Remus, Tom and, unfortunately, Dumbledore. She was missing something, and her short minutes over the summer where she doubted the twins' innocence flashed back. She shook the thought from her mind again, she wouldn't believe they were evil without ocular proof.

"Ivory, perhaps you should know how you got here," James said quietly as if searching for words, "Did Snivel- Did Snape ever explain to you why milfoil and wormwood should never be mixed, ever?"

Ivory searched her memory, "Third year he just said it was unsafe and not to do so unless we wanted great harm to befall us. He was always saying ominous things like that."

Lily rolled his eyes, "He was really never that bad of a person. However, that combination, no matter what the other ingredients are, is poisonous to all mortals, and wizards are extremely susceptible to that particular poison. The poison usually infects its victims by inhalation. Vincinte had always killed after using the potion on a person. He thought it would just put you to sleep for a while."

"So, he killed me?" Ivory asked, they all nodded, "Why would he want to drug me?"

"He didn't want you seeing something. His plan was to put you to sleep, then feed you a false story when you woke up," Dumbledore answered, "But you died, fortunately, valkyries cannot be killed by such simple means. You came here because you needed your powers explained."

Ivory looked from face to face, she was obviously disturbed by the implications that backed up her suspicions from the summer. After taking a breath she looked Remus in the eye, "No, I don't believe you. Vince loves me, he would never do anything he would rather drug me than let me see."

Remus stared back at her evenly, "We can't make you believe he is in the wrong. All we can do is ask you to remember what we've said when you return to life and hope you make the right decision."

"Congratulations, what you do when you wake up will decide the course of history," Tom said in a taunting voice, "No pressure,"

"Just let me go back," Ivory said sternly before feeling the white abyss spin and fade to black.

**November 24, 7:42 AM**

Ivory lay still in her bed, half hoping everything would be normal, yet curious whether there actually was something Vincinte was hiding from her. Realizing she couldn't stall any longer, she slowly opened her eyes to see the dark stone ceiling of her dorm room decorated with pictures of what her dorm mates had called the 'Hot List', every boy in fifth year or above that they deemed date-worthy. Ivory remembered just last year when she had to burn a picture of Kris that had been attached to the ceiling, then yelling at the poor girl who had thoughtlessly posted it. The girls had later snickered on how she didn't complain about Rebel being on the Hot List, but she just shrugged and said she hadn't seen the picture of him. They then showed her a picture of a Gryffindor chaser with bright blue eyes and a handsome smile. Ivory had shrugged and said that she didn't care if his face was up there.

"Shit," Ivory swore after looking down only to realize what she was wearing: the black tunic-thing and black skirt. Her hair was down. She stared in disbelief for a short moment before pinching herself to test if she was dreaming. She swore quietly as it did in fact hurt, "There goes my hope of that all being a very, very bad dream."

She doubtfully climbed the two flights of stairs to the seventh year dorms, not caring that her bare feet were frozen against the cold stone stairs. Each bed was still in the perfect condition that the house elves always left it in, but they never made the beds before ten in the morning. Ivory quickened her pace as she fled to the common room, paused, then headed up to the boys' dorm.

Ivory's heart skipped a beat as she saw the scene. One of the heavy candelabras had fallen and the candles had scattered unnaturally. The candelabra itself was dented from impact with the floor. Wax and scorch marks left a vaguely human-shaped void on the floor and the air still had the vague scent of burning hair, even though it was growing stale. Ivory was starting to realize something was wrong, only four people ever went to the seventh year slytherin boys' dorm: Her, Vincinte, Cyrene and Smoky. That didn't leave many options as to what could have happened. Ivory got a sick feeling in the pit of her stomach as she realized what this meant when coupled with what she had just been told by the dead people.

She had to find Vince, she needed to know for sure. The doubt was killing her.

-

_I should have been more careful. I was blinded by your halo, so I never noticed the horns._

-

(A/N: If you have ANY questions about this chapter, send me it in a review so I can post an explanation chapter if needed. A lot of thought was in this chapter and I'm afraid that I may have missed something.)


	21. Chapter 21

_If the truth was told instead of a lie, then the pain would go away sooner and not hurt as much._

_Oftentimes we say goodbye to the person we love without wanting to. Though that doesn't mean that we've stopped loving them or we've stopped to care. Sometimes goodbye is a painful way to say I love you._

**November 24, 2017 8:14 AM**

Ivory walked slowly through the dungeons, her wand held loosely in her hand. She stopped at the wood door that led to the Entrance Hall, feeling a heaviness in her chest she hadn't felt since… April 17, 2011. The day she killed Aiden Dursley. She tried to shake the thought from her head, but it just hid in the far reaches of her mind. The silence grew to be too much to bear and she slowly turned the knob on the door and pushed the door forward, eliciting a dull creak that had suddenly showed up second year. The entire first floor of the Hogwarts castle was deathly quiet, and that didn't sit well with the already panicked Ivory.

_I can't prove anything, I'm probably just psyching myself out._

Ivory didn't even believe that as she looked in the Great Hall, strangely deserted after the past few weeks of constant surveillance. Chess games had been left unfinished, books open, food half eaten. There was no denying it now, something was wrong that called everyone away. But where to look? There were surprisingly few places in the castle where nearly a hundred people could gather: the common rooms, Entrance Hall, Great Hall, Room of Requirement, Quidditch Pitch and Lawn. The common rooms were impractical because of the whole password thing, and she had already checked the Entrance and Great Halls. That left the Room of Requirement, Pitch and Lawn. After a moment of indecisiveness, she decided to check outside before climbing seven floors just to check.

Ivory walked swiftly towards the main door, urging herself not to freeze when he heard voices through the thick oak doors. It was the first sound she had heard all day from another human, and unfortunately the voices were less than friendly. Ivory inhaled deeply and pushed the door open silently and took a few steps out into the pouring and studied the situation with a lump in her throat.

On her right stood her entire family, the Pack, along with the Order, people her father and Sirius had introduced to her from the ministry. They all stood without seeing her, glaring to her left, oblivious to the pouring rain. Sweeping her head to the left she saw the fear she had been trying to avoid all morning, vampire upon vampire stood smirking at the insolence of the foolish mortals that dared to oppose them. Renato and his sister, his nieces, all of the vampires from Italy. In the center, five stood about twenty feet ahead of their respective sides. Smoky was eyeing Cyrene with a fury that explained the condition of the dorm room, and Vincinte was head to head with Rebel, Kris standing in a position that implied he was acting as Rebel's second. It was the first time Ivory had ever seen the two work together.

Ivory saw a purple curse erupt from Vincinte's wand, it was a paralytic curse, and Rebel through up a shield, barely avoiding the spell. Everything in Ivory's head seemed to click into place, and slowly, Ivory began to walk down the steps that led to the castle with a look halfway between and anger and betrayal. Remembering an old habit of her youth, she allowed her face to smooth out into a calm expression. This was only made more frightening by the rain pouring down, soaking her to the bone, and how cold everyone could feel it was. Besides, she was showing an unusual amount of skin and her feet were bare as they began their slow decent onto the muddy grass.

She remained unnoticed until Angel made a high-pitched squeal, effectively gaining the attention of most of those surrounding her. Many gaped at her, whether because of the odd choice of clothes or just because she was making a grand entrance into a battle situation, she couldn't tell. The vampires soon found her, some giving Vincinte hard glares because he had told them that she would _not_ be present today. Yet, the dualists in the middle were too preoccupied with trying to kill each other to notice her. But Ivory was not going to allow herself to be ignored.

As Vincinte and Rebel both moved to throw curses at each other, Ivory cast the strongest shield she knew of between them, which easily destroyed their curses when they hit it. This, to no one's surprise, got the boys' attention immediately. Rebel looked shaken by her appearance, as if unsure of what side she would pick. Vincinte on the other hand, faltered immediately. Ivory had been expecting that, after all, he had drugged her and done his best to ensure she didn't show up.

Vincinte took a deep breath, "Ivory, I swear, this isn't what it looks like."

Ivory kept a calm face that she could tell was unnerving them all, "And what exactly is it that I believe this looks like?"

He hadn't been expecting that, he had expected her to grow angry and yell at him, attack him even. However, she was staying perfectly calm, and making him look like a fool.

"Perhaps I thought you had invited the family over so that they can meet my family when they're all together." Ivory said, "In which case, I completely agree, this isn't what it looks like."

Vaughn was the first to relax, it was becoming obvious that Ivory wasn't about to betray her family. However, she did think that the situation was seeming frighteningly familiar. As if sensing her distress, Wolf's hand found hers and squeezed it for reassurance.

"So, how did it feel?" Ivory asked, her eyes losing the softness she had forced into them, "Killing them."

Cyrene smirked in an I-told-you-so way, but Vincinte missed it due to his surprise at the question, "I don't know what you're talking about,"

"The werewolves, how did it feel to kill all of those werewolves?" Ivory asked, "They were the ones on the light side, weren't they?"

"Ivory, I only killed because it had to be done. They were trying to take over." Vincinte insisted.

Ivory's eyes hardened, and to everyone's surprise, she laughed. She shook her head at the vampire, "No they weren't. And even if they were, I don't think I can believe you."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"I didn't want to believe it, I have denied for years what's been right in front of my face." Ivory said taking another step forward, "But you are one sick, evil son of a bitch."

Vaughn, for the first time since her children were born, had absolutely no urge to tell Ivory not to swear.

Ivory continued, "Thinking back, I don't know how I could've missed it. Even when I was eleven you were trying to get me into dark magic, and when that didn't work you began twisting my mind until I felt justified to use dark magic. You even made me think it was right to be just plain cruel to others. Especially Smoky," Ivory locked eyes with the black haired pyrokenetic, "You okay? Looks there was a bit of a fight last night."

Smoky was having a hard time believing she could be so calm when she had obviously figured out he had been attacked. He nodded in response and was able to mutter, "I'm fine,"

Satisfied with his response, she returned her gaze to her soon to be ex-boyfriend, "That brings us back to the whole werewolf thing, where you had me convinced that the werewolves were evil. And I believed you. I _killed_ in that war, and after the war I overheard you talking about 'expanding your kingdom'. The vampires weren't the victims. And how can I forget my _favorite_ birthday present that I got that summer, _Cruor Devinus_."

There was a simultaneous intake of breath as Ivory felt the hollow wings of her bones poke small holes through her numb back and her shirt and continue growing, followed by a sensitivity of her newly grown feathers. Unlike the last time she had transformed, Ivory welcomed her wand melting into her left arm. A small hum of magic came over her as she looked at the life expectancy of people for the first time in years. Everyone's read the same: ????

Vaughn grasped almost painfully onto her husband's hand, they were both remembering her vision over the summer.

Ivory relaxed back into her calm expression, "You also talked about a next phase that you were going to start at Hogwarts. I suppose you meant the murders. I bet Cyrene killed Hazel, it was too bloody for the prince of vampires' taste."

Cyrene growled, in the past minute or so she had lost her patience with her brother, was he going to let the little pansy he had grown soft for ruin the whole plan? No, Cyrene wouldn't allow this to happen. With her vampire speed she lunged at Ivory with an angry growl. Ivory raised her left arm and a bright green light broke from it and collided with Cyrene head on, throwing her backwards.

Renato, wearing his signature pink shirt moved forward to see what the young witch had done to his prized daughter. His worry turned quickly to panic as he looked at Ivory with a look between anger and sadness, "She's… she's dead, how did you kill her? She's a vampire, she's immortal!"

Ivory looked at him evenly with a glare that stated simply that she was not afraid of him. He backed up until he was even with the other vampires.

"I'd answer your question, but I have a few of my own that I would appreciate answered," Ivory said softly, and she was heard, even through the rain. Though the dead vampires lying in the mud was quite the distraction.

"Like what?" Vincinte said, not taking his eyes off his sister's body. If she could do that to Cyrene, was he any safer? Would she have the guts to kill him?

"Did you kill them? Between you and Cyrene, did you kill all eight of them and try to kill Smoky?" Ivory asked, finally showing a bit of her anger.

Vincinte didn't say anything for a long moment, probably still wondering if he had any control in the situation anymore. Apparently he decided answering the question was the right decision, "Yeah, Cyrene killed two, I killed two, we killed the four together, and last night, Cyrene was to kill Smoky. He got away."

"And where did I play into your little plan?" The simple question was surprisingly angry due to the venom she imposed on the last two words.

Vincinte cast his eyes down, "…you were to be my wife. There's no point in lying now, is there? I was going to take over the world, you were going to be my queen. I really do love you Ivory."

Ivory was silent as the rain poured down, her hair plastered to her head and shoulders, a few strands inevitably falling in front of her face. "I love you too."

No one dared to talk, instead they watched the teenage girl who, without them knowing, was silently crying over what she was about to do.

"That potion you tried to knock me out with," Ivory said, although no one understood what she was talking about other than Vincinte, "It's not just a sleeping potion, it's poison. You killed me. Or would have, but I can't really die. You see, I had it explained what exactly I was by a few close friends. Dead friends, but friends all the same. I'm a valkyrie."

The only sound was rain as every last person, other than a few vampires that were nearly a thousand years old from what she'd heard seemed to understand.

"Valkyries are literally the Angels of Death. In old Norse mythology they were the ones who decided who would be slain in battle, and then the legends say they carried the souls back to Odin." Ivory recited from a book she had read in her youth, her mother had gotten it almost ten years ago in order to give her something to do while she was teaching, "In truth, we just see death, and kill those deservant of death. So while I'm around, there is no immortal."

The words hit the vampires like bricks, but Vincinte had never been one to give up easy, "Come on, you wouldn't kill me, Ivory. I love you, and I know you love me too."

Ivory fought herself from faltering, _the ones you love the most are usually the ones that hurt you the most._ Ivory breathed deeply as she slowly brought her left hand up again until it was pointing directly at Vincinte, the vampire who had loved her despite her flaws, her anger and had been the only one to call her beautiful. She had returned the favor, and he had spoiled her. She closed her eyes, he had lied too, made her kill, nearly killed Smoky…

Ivory's eyes opened again, just in time to see the green light hit between Vincinte's eyes, filled with fear for the first time in his life. Her stomach coiled up, and she was sure she was going to puke, but a rather large distraction stopped her from reacting to Vincinte's death. Like every vampire rushing to attack her in effort to live. They didn't last long before they fell victim to the Angel of Death.

When every vampire had fallen, Ivory stayed where she was, but everyone could see she was far from the calm manipulator of the earlier discussion. She was shaking, both from the cold that she could suddenly feel and from what she had just done. Her left hand was still up, which effectively stopped everyone from moving, lest she decide to kill them. Little did they know that two figures were doing their best to get the young girl out of 'kill anything that moves' mode.

"Ivory, you did what you had to do, you don't have to be strong anymore," Remus said, putting a hand on her arm, but she couldn't feel it.

"Just don't cry, Slytherins don't cry," Tom said rolling his eyes, royally pissed off that she had chosen the light.

"Tom! She's already crying, you aren't helping," Remus yelled back at him, then turned to Ivory, "Go ahead and cry Ivory, no one should have to do what you did today. Cry it out,"

"Come on, she just owned some major vampire ass, and now she's going to _cry?_" Tom asked as if the notion was ridiculous.

"If you're going to act that way, just leave now," Remus growled, showing his inner wolf.

"Fine," Tom said as he faded away.

Ivory's eyes were closed as she cried in the pouring rain, and before Remus could add anymore words of comfort, her knees buckled. Her knees splashed loudly in the puddle she had forgotten she was standing in, her hands the only thing stopping her from falling face first in the mud. The ends of her hair were trailing in the mud, but that was the last thing on her mind at the moment.

Reactions had been mixed when she fell to the ground, some relaxed to see she was no longer about to kill, those who knew her better were stressed because she seemed to be crying. Ivory didn't cry, well, as a baby she had cried, though quieter than most had when they were babies. Wolf was the first to gather the courage to approach her, and did so with caution. He was pleasantly surprised when she didn't stop him from touching her, although he was only brushing her soaking wet hair from her face.

"Come on Bri, its okay, you're safe. You can lose the wings." He said quietly.

Ivory seemed to struggle to remember something for the first time in her life before whispering, "_Cruor Desino_."

Wolf watched with curiosity as her wand emerged from her arm (which he quickly pocketed because he didn't want his daughter to be doing magic while she was distressed) and her feathers and wing bones molt and turn to ash. Wolf watched as she had her eyes flickering from dead vampire to dead vampire, and she softly whispered, "Cyrene, Vincinte, Renato, Enrica, Alisa, Marisa, Aria, Sansone, Marco, Guido, Ercole, Carin, Ottavia, Quorra, Rosetta, Chiara, Mia, Luisa, Viviana, Dante, Ilario, Ehno, Rocco, Taddeo, Ugo, I knew them all by name… and I…"

Wolf watched her eyes fade from green to grey, she wasn't going to finish her sentence. He hesitated for less than a second before picking his fifteen year old daughter up, thankful that she was small and light, because her wet hair had to weigh at least ten pounds by itself. Without saying a word he began carrying her inside, and she made no complaint.

Sirius was one of the next to come out of the stupor Ivory had caused and began directing the group to dispose of the bodies. Smoky's pyrokenetic abilities were used to burn the bodies even in the rain. As Cyrene's body was levitated onto the flames, Smoky felt numb rather than the joy he would have felt in the same situation a month ago. Most, in light of the celebratory circumstances, were stuck in a somber mood. Ivory's little show had been startling at best.

-

_You can close your eyes to what you don't want to see, but you can't close your heart to what you don't want to feel._

-

(A/N: Well, I con only see one, maybe two chapters left. And trust me, I'm going to cry when posting the last chapter of this. Not only because I've been working on this story for a over a year (well, the start of Cub was March 4, 2008), but because many of the characters have aspects of myself. Ivory is the embodiment of my hate and love, hate with all your heart and love childishly. Seriously though, I want to finish this while I can (I'm on stage crew for my school play all next month) Questions, concerns, and **one shot challenges** can all be submitted by review.)


	22. Chapter 22

With the battle field cleared, leaving only the acrid smell of burning flesh, the Aurors returned to the ministry to spread the news while everyone else returned to the Great Hall. Rebel, to no one's surprise, was at the front of the group. Although he claimed to no longer care about her, it was obvious that was nowhere near the truth. This was further supported by him freezing once looking into the Great Hall.

Ivory was backing away from her father, the one person she had ever admired, with a look of fear on her face. It appeared he had managed to dry her clothes with magic, but her hair was still soaking wet. Wolf had always seemed to know how to comfort his daughter, but the look on his face suggested that he had been stumped. Rebel had watched her carefully over the years and knew what was wrong, Vincinte was the only one she had ever allowed to touch her hair. He walked to stand even with Wolf, "She freaked out when you touched her hair, didn't she?"

Wolf nodded and Rebel slowly walked closer to her, and after initial hesitation, she stayed put. He sat at the table closest to her and watched her expectantly. Rebel hadn't done this in years, just sat and looked at her to ask her to join him. Ivory inched over to him and sat a foot away on the bench, refusing to look away from her bare feet. Rebel rested his hand palm up on the bench between them, and allowed a small smile when her hand joined his. He knew what she was going through, to an extent. He chose his words carefully, "I'm not going to say I know what you're going through. I'm not going to tell you that you'll ever be the same. All I'm going to say is that I'm here if you ever need someone to talk to or a shoulder to cry on. I promise."

Ivory held his hand tighter, but she refused to make a sound or attempt to look at him.

**Tempus Praeter**

"Girl needs to relax, she just killed a murderer, and we aren't celebrating?" One of the younger Aurors complained to his companions, "Spoiled little princess is even refusing to go get her own stuff from her dorm, and won't talk."

"Funny, Alterchov, I don't see you facing fifty-seven vampires single-handedly," Sirius said humorlously as he glared at the young Auror, "Oh, and let's have you know them all personally. I'd love to see how you act afterward. And unless you _want _to be fired, I suggest you refrain from calling a victim 'spoiled'."

"No way in hell she's a victim, she killed them without a second thought," Alterchov shot back, hearing annoyed sighs from the older Aurors.

Sirius was inches from Alterchov's face with an expression that rivaled those of actual murderers, "Let me elaborate, don't call my traumatized equivalent of a grandchild anything,"

"Grandchild?" Alterchov asked as the irate minister stalked off.

Kingsley smirked, "Harry's like a son to him, and he adores all off his 'grandchildren', which has slowly grown to encompass just about every 'cub of the Pack' as they call them."

Sirius ignored the rest of the conversation as he made his way to see Ivory, whose behavior continued to be disturbing. As Alterchov had mentioned, she had silently refused to go within ten feet of the door to the dungeons. Smoky had been given clearance to fetch her things, and Ivory had dug out serviceable pajamas before changing. The Pack had decided to stay in the Great Hall through the night since Ivory refused to go to her dorm and they thought it was a bad idea to leave her alone when she was obviously distressed. Besides, Hogwarts usually had the student sleep in the Great Hall in hard times, even though in this case, the only danger was Ivory going insane and killing them all. Hopefully, that wouldn't happen. As she returned to the Great Hall, Wolf smiled sadly.

She was wearing his shirt, though it looked more like a dress on her. The one she had stolen when she was only three and he had started working at Hogwarts. It was the last remaining testament that she had ever loved either of her parents. Ivory had made it obvious Wolf was his favorite, and wouldn't stop crying when he went off to teach. It was sheer brilliance that Vaughn discovered Wolf's shirts had enough of his scent to comfort her. He had mysteriously lost many shirts that school year. When Ivory was seven she started to break away from people, and that summer he found a pile of every shirt she had stolen clean and folded on his bed. All except for one, the one she had hidden away and wore for emotional comfort.

Ivory curled up with a blanket in the middle of the room between Kris and Smoky, with Rebel well within reach. The rest of the cubs spread out around them. The scene was rare, it was only the fifth time they had all slept on the floor in the same room voluntarily, and the previous four times were sleepovers when they were toddlers. Other students had picked up on it and were also choosing to join them, mainly because it was too quiet in common rooms because almost everyone was gone.

When they were asleep, Professor Rivers' eyes widened, "Oh, crap,"

The adults all turned to him and almost simultaneously asked, "What?"

"We forgot the younger kids," Rivers said. Sure enough, no one had visited anywhere but the deserted Slytherin, because the kids had simply transfigured their clothes. That meant the twenty or so other kids though the battle was still going on…

McGonagall looked at him sternly, "Don't just stand there, go get them. At least tell them the battle is over."

"Oh, right," Rivers said as he jogged out of the Great Hall.

**December 8, 2017**

It was exactly two weeks after Vincinte and Cyrene's death, a day rejoiced by the Italian Magic Community, who had sent word giving Ivory the title of _Sicario di Vampiro. _Vampire Assassin, more or less. Hogwarts had been reopened to the public, but it was decided that winter break would start early. Student would resume classes on January fifth. The Pack had gone to the Malfoy Manor for Winter Break, at Draco's insistance, followed by the Ginny, Vaughn, Hermione and Ferret silently deciding they were. Besides, it kept the Pack together as Ivory's behavior didn't improve.

First of all, Ivory didn't talk, and hadn't talked since the battle. Her hair stayed down and eyes were empty most of the time. She didn't shy away from people though, and seemed comforted by the presence of others, especially Rebel, Kris, and Wolf. She'd always been closer to the three of them. Sometimes she would even look at someone sadly as if wanting to say something, but was afraid to do so. They were hoping she would say something, but it wasn't until the eighth of December that she did, while everyone was lounging around the large living room at the Manor.

Ivory was curled up on the arm of the couch staring into the carpet like it held the answers to everything before quietly saying, "Nigel?" Her voice was hoarse, of course, whose wouldn't be after two weeks.

Everyone looked at her with surprised expressions, the Pack never called Sable by his real name, and Ivory had always called him Grandpa. However, they quickly realized that the fact that she was talking was more important than an oddity of speech. Sable replied with little hesitation, "Yeah, Ivory?"

She was biting her lip as her eyes swept across the carpet, "Do you remember the Dursley case? The murder?"

Sable was more than confused, she hadn't talked in two weeks and now she wanted to talk about an unsolved murder case from six years ago, "Why are you bringing this up?"

Ivory was shaking, and hugged her legs tighter to try to hide it. After swallowing hard, she said, "It was me,"

"What do you mean it was you?" Wolf asked softly. And Ivory looked at the people around her for the first time, and they noticed there were tears in her eyes.

"I mean, that it was me," She insisted, "I killed Aiden Dursley almost six years ago. I stabbed him to death."

The room fell silent. No one was quite sure what to do after she claimed to have murdered when she was what, nine?

Vaughn was the first to try to reason with her, "Come on baby, you can't have really killed him."

"Besides, there wasn't a murder weapon. There's no way for you to prove you killed him." Sable said.

"No, I can prove I did it," Ivory said, surprisingly desperate to prove her guiltiness, and pulled a pocketknife out of her pocket and flipped the blade open. It shone a macabre red dotted with places that had faded to an almost black shade. Ivory held it in a shaking hand as she said, "I killed him with this, that's his blood that's dried on the blade. I couldn't bring myself to clean it off."

Sable looked at the knife, pieces slowly fitting together in his head. How suspicious she had acted mere hours after the murder, why she said her friend had to leave her, most of her strange behavior since she came back when she was ten. But why say something now? Sable needed to know more, both as a surrogate grandfather and as a detective on the case. He took a deep breath, "I'm going to need the murder wea- I need the knife."

Ivory looked confused by his hesitance to call her a murderer. She shifted the knife in her hand so she held the blade as he took the handle from her. A small part of her went back to when she received it from her mother. They'd always been told as kids to offer people the handle, because pirates had hook hands because their hands had been cut off when being handed a blade. In hindsight, it was a silly story, but it got the message across to two young Potter children.

Sable carefully studied the knife before retracting the blade and slipping it into his own pocket. He then looked her in the eyes skeptically, "I'm still having a really hard time believing you could kill someone. Why would you kill him?"

Ivory was still shaking as she offered an explanation, "Toni and I ran away together. We were idiots. Toni got pneumonia, and despite knowing I was probably going to be beat up by the group of boys Aiden led, I went to go get Toni medicine. I didn't see them until I was almost back, there were eight of the boys blocking my way. Aiden was always the worst. He called me little mouse. We had our usual argument, I won the mental game, but he decided he wouldn't let me get away with that…"

Ivory's eyes darkened and her shivering grew to tremors as she seemed to be remembering something terrible. What happened when she was nine hadn't been fully realized until recently, she had known the vague meaning of rape, but now it seemed real to her. The group was wearily waiting for her to continue, and were surprised as she slid to sit on the couch like normal before speaking again.

"He grabbed me and wouldn't let me go… said he was going to rape me. I remembered the pocket knife and next thing I remember is being covered in blood standing over his body with the knife in his hand," The room was silent as she slowly made eye contact with Sable, who had been writing on a pad of paper until the last two sentences, where everyone in the room froze with their eyes on her. Part of it was the realization that the circumstances could bring her to fight back and even kill another, but the silence was also due to contemplation on how she had kept it a secret. And for the second time in the last six years, a tear slid down Ivory's face, "Will you arrest me now?"

Sable flinched, "What are you talking about? You were almost raped by a kid twice your size. You're the victim here."

"I stabbed him nineteen times and cut off his arm." Ivory said, "I'm not a victim. I broke the law by taking another's life. I deserve to be in jail."

"For what he was going to do to you, he deserved to be killed," Sable said.

Ivory stood up quickly with a pained look on her face, "Don't say that, that's what he said."

"What who said?" Sable asked after a moment of silence.

Ivory's shoulders slumped as she realized that she had let another of her secrets out. Her fingers occupied themselves with a small portion of her hair as she explained, "That's what Tom said after I killed him. Well, what Voldemort said. I can talk to dead people. I have always been able to."

"That explains a lot," Wolf said as everyone else just gaped, "You always seemed to talk to yourself far too much. Who do you usually talk to?"

Ivory sighed, "Mainly just Tom and Remus. I like Remus better, but Tom understands me – to an extent."

"Wait, you sympathize with a mass murderer?" Vaughn asked belligerently.

Ivory rose defensively to her mother's level, "He knows more about me than you ever did. He and Rem payed attention to me when I was alone, they kept an eye on me when I ran away, and yes I do sympathize with a mass murderer. What did I just do to some fifty vampires? And no Tom, I have not forgiven you for what you made me do to Aiden."

Her last comment was directed to a section of air where they assumed Tom was standing. Vaughn was having a really hard time with the whole situation, "But Ivory, you killed for good. There's nothing wrong with that. Your father isn't a murderer for killing Voldemort." Vaughn said before giving a strange look to the air her daughter had been talking to, "No offense… Tom."

Ivory laughed, "That's just sick, a hero and murderer can do the same thing, one is praised the other jailed. That's what I'm tired of, I killed fifty people. End of story. There should be some kind of consequence. And worse, I knew them all by name. It shouldn't matter that they were evil."

"You had to kill the man you loved, and you've been kicking yourself about it for two weeks, isn't that punishment enough?" Rebel asked quietly.

Ivory shook her head, and Rebel seemed to get an idea of what she had in mind.

"Just a minute," Rebel got the Wolf, Vaughn, Ginny and Draco to gather with him to talk for a few moments and they broke away with serious expressions. His idea was simple: she simply needed others to recognize that she had done wrong, thus some sort of mild punishment was in order.

Draco was playing spokesperson, "Ivory May Potter, for the crimes of murder, you have been sentenced to live in one of the old cells in the dungeon here for three days. This is effective immediately. Mr. Hawthorn, would you mind escorting the convict?"

Sable caught on quickly and grabbed the handcuffs he kept on his belt out of habit, "Oh, it would be an honor Mr. Malfoy."

Ivory didn't protest as she was cuffed and read her rights, nor when she was lead down a back passage way to the dungeons. Strangely enough, she seemed calmed by the situation. Vaughn gave Rebel an appraising look, "How did you know that's what she wanted?"

Rebel shrugged, "It just seemed… like her. The entire confession of killing whatshisname Dursley was a ploy to get some kind of punishment for what she had done to the vampires. It was hard for her to kill them, but then be applauded for doing so. She needed to right it. Like when she was a kid she would use magic to give herself scrapes because she knew she would get a cookie if she was bleeding. The girl's a manipulator to the heart. I wasn't surprised in the least when she became a Slytherin."

"She did _what _to get cookies? And how, that was only before she was five." Vaughn seemed a bit overwhelmed.

Rebel smiled, "She's been able to control magic since she was about three. How else would she be good with most types of magic?"

"Answer me this then, if you know so much about her, why did she ever like that vampire boy?" Vaughn asked, thinking he couldn't answer. No one thought he could.

"She felt ostracized by everyone, she'd been kept away from Hogwarts, separated from the rest of us by age, and felt that she was treated unfairly. She may have even felt unloved. Vincinte however, showed interest in her even when she slapped him, and was continually asking her to hang out with him and his sister. And afterwards he proved to be romantic, loyal, but not serious enough to make her feel like she had to grow up. To her, he was the most charming thing on the planet." Rebel answered without hesitation, "And she just had to kill that."

-

(A/N: Eep! Last chapters! Coming up next… I have to come up with a satisfactory happy ending. I'm not good at those. Expect the next chapter up some time tomorrow or next Monday. Also, if you have any challenges you would like to give me (please, no sequels), send them to me via review, and I will definitely put them into consideration. –Lemonbmber)


	23. Chapter 23

**December 15, 2017**

Ivory's mood had greatly improved since being jailed for seventy-two hours. She was now talking to others, although the topics stayed rather general to avoid her breaking down again. Most of her comments were frustrated attempts to figure out the relations between the younger members of the Pack. It took four days of her to be confident enough to test her theories.

"Okay, be sure to correct me if I'm wrong," Ivory said as they all sat in Lyra's bedroom, lounging around the furniture, "Unless I'm mistaken, Kris and Angel are going out."

Kris smiled, "Only for a couple months, but yeah."

"Makes sense, the hot-head and the air-head." Ivory joked, ducking as her brother threw a pillow at her.

"Jeez Kris, we all know she right," Conner said condescendingly as Kris scowled.

"Okay, then Conner is with Lyra, right?" Ivory asked, beaming when she received nods from both of them, Lyra's was very reluctant.

"I only agreed to go with him to the Christmas Ball yesterday, how could you already know about it?" Lyra asked with her nose in the air.

Ivory laughed, "Are you kidding? The two of you are just like Uncle Ron and Aunt Hermione, one always follows the rules, and the other never does. You were made for each other. My next guess is that Eyra, the pyromaniac, is going out with our resident pyrokinetic, Smoky."

…

Everyone but the two in question groaned as they realized the two were snogging, oblivious to the others in the room.

"…I'll take that as a yes," Her eyes turned to Rebel, with shock showing momentarily on her face, before her face curved into a smirk, "So who's the lucky lady you're dating?"

Rebel hesitated, which everyone took as a sign to leave (including the briefly interrupted couple who was snogging). Ivory shot him a concerned look, and he quietly said, "There isn't a girl."

"Oh," Ivory said quickly, "So do you swing _that way_?"

Rebel looked shocked for a moment before laughing awkwardly, "No, I'm not gay, though I've had plenty of accusations. The whole never dating thing seems a little suspicious to most."

"Why haven't you ever dated?" Ivory asked.

Rebel shot a confused, "Because I fell in love with a girl who loved someone else."

"Oh," Ivory said awkwardly, "And you never got over her?"

Rebel thought for a moment, "She's not the kind of girl you can forget."

Ivory nodded, "So what have you been up to all these years?"

"I've been playing Quidditch, I'm the best Chaser on the Gryffindor according to the Captain. He says the last Chaser the Gryffindor team had that was as good as me was James Potter." Rebel said, though he seemed almost disinterested.

Ivory looked guilty, "I'm sorry I never went to any of the games. If I had known-"

"If you'd known any of this was going to happen, would you change it?" Rebel asked, "If you could go back and change anything, would you? Or was it worth it for the happiness you had?"

Ivory closed her eyes, torn between the options, "No, I wouldn't give up Vince. Would I change other things, maybe. I don't know anymore." She opened her eyes, "If you could go back in time, how would you convince the girl to be with you? Would you force her to?"

Rebel sighed, "No, she was happy. I couldn't hide that I was miserable, but she was happy, so I never payed to much attention to it." Rebel sat on his sister's bed, and Ivory sat next to him. He looked at her, "So do you miss him?"

Ivory shook her head, "No, I miss who I thought he was. I miss the guy that joke around and play mary-mack with me, who laughed as a royally dismantled his first language, and protected me from his sister. I don't miss the tyrant he was growing to become, the one that would rule the world. I'll only miss the romantic part of Vince."

"It hurts, doesn't it?" Rebel said quietly, "Being in love with someone you can't have."

"I think it's worse for me, he still loved me. I killed him knowing that. You at least have a chance of getting with the girl if she ever gets the brains to come around." Ivory scoffed, ignoring the fact that she was close to tear again. As far as she was concerned, this was Rebel, the one person she could always trust. Why care that he saw her crying?

"You at least knew he loved you, I have no way of knowing whether she loves me or not." Rebel sighed.

"You don't have to look back on the best time of your life and have that memory tainted by death."

"You don't have to wonder how different things would be if you had only said something,"

"You didn't have to kill anyone."

Rebel laughed, "Are we seriously competing over who had the worst past?"

Ivory laughed as well, "Yes, I suppose we are."

The two just sat for a moment, basking in how nice it was to be this close after Merlin knows how many years. Ivory got a smirk on her face and smiled as she assumed Rebel was getting the same look on his face. Ivory spoke first, "The past is too painful, let's forget about it and move on with our lives. How about this, I stop thinking about Vince, and you ask that girl out."

Rebel seemed to consider for only a second before agreeing to the compromise. They shook on the deal, "So when do I have to ask this girl out by, even if she rejects me?"

Ivory thought for a moment, "Valentine's at the latest, preferably earlier."

"How about before Christmas?"

"Sooner the better."

"Good," Rebel said taking her hand in his, "How about if I ask her now?"

Ivory tensed up as her eyes flew between the hand of hers that Rebel was holding and his face, "What the hell are you doing, Rebel?"

"I'm asking out the girl I've bee in love with for the past five years," Rebel replied softly, "Will you, Ivory May Potter, accept my invitation to be my date to my parents' Christmas Ball?"

Ivory waited for a moment, almost hoping this was all some joke. However, looking in his eyes she knew he was really asking, and that he was expecting immediate rejection. Truthfully, she was afraid to move and give him any impression that she had decided either way, "All this time… it was me?"

Rebel nodded.

Ivory took a ragged breath, "Wow… I really don't know what to say. On one hand, I'm not entirely comfortable getting into another relationship after the last one ended on such a bad note," Rebel flinched, but chose not to interrupt her, "Then again, I feel I should at least give you a chance because I do love you dearly – even though I thought it to be more of a family love than a romantic love. I feel bad for saying I loved you like a brother so many times."

Rebel shrugged, "I'm not going to say it didn't hurt, but I won't hold it against you."

Ivory took a deep breath, "Know what, I don't know if I'll be able to love you to the extent that you loved me, but Merlin knows I fail when it comes to love. I'm willing to go to the Ball with if you give me a hand with doing something beforehand, 'Kay Bel?"

Rebel smiled, "If you're happy, I'm happy," He then kissed her softly, afraid she would push him away, and was pleased when she didn't.

"What the hell? Is it 'Snog in Lyra's Room Day' or what?" Lyra said standing in the door as the two snapped back to reality and blushed.

Conner came up behind her and held her hands as he led her into her room, "I can't believe no one told me, come on Lyra, we _have_ to celebrate."

"Let go! I don't want to kiss you!"

**December 25, 2017**

With all the kids being well out of their childhood, Christmas morning had a more mature swing to it. Instead of getting up at the crack of dawn to open presents in pajamas, they were casually opened around ten o'clock wearing casual clothes. Instead of the annual snowball fight after brunch, there was a couples snow sculpture contest (competing was the couples of Wolf/Vaughn, Sable/Ferret, Draco/Ginny, Ron/Hermione, Neville/Luna, Kris/Angel, Smoky/Eyra, Conner/Lyra, Rebel/Ivory and Jet/Tara(Romanian co-worker of his)). This contest was judged by Sirius, Ebony and Lyn, the only ones that were still single. Wolf and Vaughn won by making a perfect recreation of everyone's favorite dragon, Firesong, because Smoky and Eyra's sculpture of the Hogwarts was disqualified for using fir to make the snow into ice. Afterwards the girls left to get ready for the Ball, Rebel joining them for a few minutes before returning with a huge grin on his face.

"What's that look for?" Kris asked.

Rebel shook his head, "You're sister's awesome."

Kris glared at him, "And what exactly is that supposed to mean?"

Rebel couldn't help but laugh at how suddenly Kris had become protective, "You'll see."

Kris, among a few of the others, found Rebel's smile to be ever so slightly disconcerting. Especially seeing how past surprises involving Ivory had a tendency of being bad (running away, murder, boyfriend, being a valkyrie that can kill ANYONE…).

The boys spent very little time getting ready for the Ball. Mainly because they didn't see the point of dressing up for the members of the pack and a few family friends. As always, the girls spent a lot more time and effort on their looks, because it was the only day of the year most of them dressed up.

As always, the oldest of the women were the first to come down. It was only after the mothers had all come down that the younger girls began making their entrances down the main staircase. First was Angel, who was wearing the same pale blue dress she had worn the past two years. Ebony and Lynn came next, wearing slacks and blouses because neither really cared much for dressing up at a Ball that was really more of a wizarding tradition than a muggle one, and they felt rather out of place among everyone else. The 'Weasley Twins' were next, and the attire was unsurprising. Lyra wore and amber colored knee-length dress that matched her hair, while Eyra wore a sleeveless black dress that was barely long enough to be acceptable. No need to say that Ron hated it.

However, Ivory was the real surprising one. They had all been used to her wearing jeans with holes in the knees and a tank top to the Ball in the past. Of course, this year she had taken a different approach. Her mother had been overjoyed to go dress shopping with her several days before, and the dark green dress (the first actual dress she had ever owned) looked amazing on her. This wasn't what shocked them the most though, her hair wasn't hanging down to her waist. Her hair was now in a boy's cut that was only a couple inches at it's longest parts, and while it looked odd on her, no one could claim it looked bad. She slowly walked down the stairs with a faint smirk on her lips.

Ivory looked at them all as her smirk deepened, "There must be something really amazing behind me to make all of you gape like that."

They all took a brief moment to compose themselves before Smoky asked her, "What made you cut your hair so short."

Vaughn muttered, as all mothers do, "What hair, she has none left."

Ivory rolled her eyes, "My hair has always driven me insane, but until recently a certain vampire has had me convinced that my hair was one of my best qualities. And since I have so many bad memories with my long hair, I thought that by cutting most of it off it was giving me a chance to start over. Kind of symbolically."

"Good," Wolf said, "You need the chance to live a somewhat normal life."

Ivory covered her mouth to hide the fact that she had started laughing, "Wow, that's only the third time I've ever heard Remus swear like that. The two of you said the exact same thing in unison. He's not very fond of the whole unison thing."

"Man, I would love to live in your world for about five minutes," Smoky said, "More than that I'd probably end up killing myself."

Ivory flipped him off smiling, ignoring her mother's rolling eyes, "My life isn't that bad… fine, it is that bad. It does have it's high points though. Dead people make the funniest bets. I've seen Tom sing 'I'm a little teapot', the dead members on the order put on a ballet, James had to dye his hair magenta for seventeen days, but my personal favorite was watching Remus do the thriller dance while wearing- what do you mean I'm not allowed to tell them what you were wearing? No, they won't think any less of you… true, I can't guarantee it but- fine."

"What bet did Remus lose to have to do that?" Wolf asked, looking at where Ivory had been talking.

Ivory seemed to get permission, and smiled as she said, "It was actually a fairly recent dare, Tom said that Lyra and Conner would be together before the end of the year, which meant at least one date, and Remus claimed that they wouldn't. Which is unfortunate, because I would have preferred to see Tom in that outfit – not that you didn't look perfectly hilarious in that costume, Rem."

They watched as Ivory's eyes lit up as she watched the empty part of the room with amusement and everyone continued with the regularly scheduled events. Rebel however, stayed with her as she rolled her eyes and wished a happy Christmas to the two ghosts. He sighed, "I don't know how you can be so used to having the dead and the living talk to you at the same time."

"I assure you, it's no more difficult than having multiple living people talking to you, only I have the opportunity to look like a complete loon doing it," Ivory said in an almost bored tone.

"So, what are you going to do now?" Rebel asked.

Ivory shrugged, "I'd love to say that I would live a normal life, but that doesn't seem like much of an option at this point. Besides, I think I want to do something that is actually helpful, but doesn't involve killing people."

"I don't think there's anyone stupid enough to ask you to spend your life killing people." Rebel said.

"You'd be surprised, a got a letter a few days ago from Kingsley, current head of the Auror department, telling me he would be happy to let me skip all the prerequisites and join the Auror training program in January." Ivory's voice dropped, "I told Sirius, and he agrees that it's against so many laws, it's not even funny. Underage magic, underage working, unjust work environment, and a few others. Since Kingsley's well into his sixties, he's been given the chance to retire rather than be fired for so much as offering. So, Ron's about to be head of department.

"Wow," Rebel commented, "So do you have any ideas of what you want to be?"

Ivory seemed to be lost in thought for a moment, "Well… I have always loved working with Charms. Since I skipped third year charms, this is my last year. Flitwick offered be my mentor next year so I could get my degree for being at master level for Charms. At that point I could get any job breaking charms for Gringotts or similar companies… or…"

"Or what?"

"In the summer of 2020, McGonagall will be retiring, at age ninety-five, and Flitwick, though he refuses to tell his age, will also be retiring. They've suggested that I could take over for Flitwick." Ivory said with a sad look on her face.

"Why does that make you upset? It sounds like the kind of job you're looking for."

"Yeah, but," Ivory paused, "Something I haven't told everyone is that I can see when people are going to die. There's little count downs above their heads. Flitwick's going to die shortly after the Christmas after next."

Rebel just stared at her for a moment, "You know, until you said that last part, this whole valkyrie business sounded kind of cool, now it's just plain disturbing."

"Yeah, I know. I think I'm going to ask to take all my NEWT level classes next year with you, do the apprenticeship and ask if I can teach with Flitwick for a year before taking the job. I doubt McGonagall will say no. Besides, most of my teachers are complaining about me showing up the other students in my year, especially Snape. He really wishes I wasn't as good with potions as I am."

"Sure does sound like a Snape thing to do." Rebel said smiling.

"And what are your plans after school?"

"I have several Quidditch teams coming to watch me play, I hope to play quidditch until I'm too old to."

Ivory smiled, "Now I _really_ have to go to one of your games."

Rebel held her hand, "Yes you do. That is, if you think our relationship will actually last."

"God I hope so," Ivory sighed, "After what we've been through, we deserve our own happily ever after."

The two looked at each other and burst out laughing at the absurdity of the comment as they went to join the others in the annual Christmas Day Scavanger hunt.

.

THE END

.

(A/N: … It's over. Well, I'm going to write a 250-1000 word epilogue that just shows where people go, what they do, and their children. I will probably have that posted within a week. Thank you for sticking with this crazy sequel until the very end. –lemonbomber)


	24. Happily Ever After and All That Crap

**TCL: The Cubs' Legacies**

**Epilogue: Happily Ever After and All That Crap**

**Part One: The Kids**

I don't know if you're as curious as I am about families, but here I will have the six couples of the next generation and their children. If this doesn't interest you, feel free to skip to Part Two of this epilogue. Part one will be in the following format:

Mother'sName Maidenname-Marriedname

Father'sName Lastname

_-Child Name: (date of birth) how their name was chosen_

Okay, here we go!

Angel Longbottom-Potter

Kris Remus Potter

_-Erela Potter: (June 14, 2020) Her name means angel in Hebrew. Acts more like Kris though…_

_-Rhain Potter: (August 2, 2022) Following the tradition of naming with weapons, Rhain is Welsch for a lance or spear._

_-Mei Potter: (September 4, 2023) The name means youngest of daughters as well as plums. Mainly picked because her parents liked the name, and in a cruel twist of fate, she's allergic to plums._

Ivory May Potter-Malfoy

Rebel Malfoy

-_Kandice Malfoy: (April 19, 2022) Meaning white and pure, follows after mother's name._

_-Raif Malfoy: (November 4, 2025) Meaning forgiving and sympathetic. Was actually a mistake made by Rebel writing the name on the birth certificate too quickly, he was supposed to write Ralf, meaning wolf council. Fail._

Lyra Malfoy-Weasley

Conner Malfoy

_-Leo Weasley: (November 27, 2025) Lyra insisted their child be named after a constellation since her brother had obviously neglected tradition._

Eyra Weasley-Hawthorn

Adrian "Smoky" Hawthorn (yes, he actually did have a real name)

-_Kenneth 'Neth' Hawthorn: (May 12, 2021) Means born of fire, need I say more?_

_- Aydan Hawthorn: (February 29, 2024) Means little fire, remember, parents are obsessed with fire._

Ebony Hawthorn-Clapp

Ain Clapp

_Alyx Clapp: (January 23, 2024) Named after her father's grandmother who raised him._

Tara Bushnell-Hawthorn

Jet Hawthorn

_Camelia Hawthorn: (October 30, 2019) Named after her mother's favorite flower._

_Mihael Howthorn: (July 1, 2021) The name Michael spelled as it is in Croatia, his mother's home country._

**Part Two: Where are they now?**

In this part, I will explain further jobs and general lives of the Cubs (but not their children, I don't have the time these days to do their whole story). Enjoy!

**Angel Potter**: Angel found her true home in working at St. Mungo's. A year after leaving Hogwarts she joined a program to become a mediwitch, and began working full time in 2019. Loving children, she specialized in working with children and went on to have three children of her own.

**Kris Potter: **Not sure what to do with his tendency to come up with elaborate plans for revenge on people, Hermione turned him towards the rescue and aid division of the ministry. He now spends his days coming up with and executing plans to rescue kidnapped witches and wizards and capture the criminals.

**Ivory Malfoy: **Flitwick died as she predicted, but after four months of teaching his classes with him, she easily made the transition to being the Hogwarts charms master. Ivory never had to use her valkyrie powers again, and often was a source of entertainment when she was arguing with her dead friends.

**Rebel Malfoy: **After school became a member of the Montrose Magpies Quidditch team leading to seven national titles in a row. Unfortunately, in the last match of pre-lims year eight, four members were injured, and though Rebel was fine, those four were never able to play again. The team was never able to build back up to being winners again.

**Lyra Weasley:** Quickly ascended in the ministry, becoming one of the top lawyers in all of magical Europe by 2025.

**Conner Weasley:** Never really thought about what he wanted to be. Won the European wizard's chess tournament three times in a row before deciding to work on the daily Prophet as a fact checker (merlin knows they need one).

**Eyra Hawthorn: **Her love of fire in turn helped her to become a well-known breeder of fire salamanders. By 2020 she was able to train and domesticate almost a hundred. She profits from selling some of the eggs as well as selling domesticated Salamanders to wizards as pets.

"**Smoky" Hawthorn: **Found himself unable to stop himself from being bored by jobs, so generally take short term jobs. Generally finds himself working with dragons because he can't be hurt by fire, as well as helping his wife keep fires lit at home for her salamanders.

**Ebony Clapp: **Became a member of the English Parliament and married Ain Clapp, one of the major members of the English Cabinet.

**Jet Hawthorn: **Successful Auror along with wife Tara, though eventually grew bored and switched to the department of magical law enforcement where he know resides and typically carries out interrogation.

**Sirius Black: **Our lovely minister of magic was in office 1997-2043. After which, he lived out his days spending time with his adopted family before finally being the last of the Marauders to die in 2057, at age 97. May he rest in peace.

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There you go, my short little epilogue where, surprisingly, they all lived happily ever after. And don't get mad at me for writing Siri's death. He died of natural causes living to be twice as old as any of the other marauders.

I'll ask one more time, please please please _please _send me a challenge. Preferably a one shot, but if you inspire me to write more, I'll be glad to.

Thank you for reading until the end. I love you all (well, as much as I can love a bunch of people I've never seen and probably never will).


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